A study on fundamental aerodynamic characteristics of future space transportation systems

T. Yoneda, S. Aso, S. Tsuchiya, W. Morita

Research output: Contribution to conferencePaperpeer-review

7 Citations (Scopus)

Abstract

Experimental studies of Reusable Launch Vehicles (RLV) fundamental configurations were conducted. There are two configurations in RLV configurations; wing body and lifting body. Therefore we conducted experiments on fundamental configurations of wing body and lifting body in present study to obtain their aerodynamic characteristics as reference data and to understand these characteristics. Also the effects of the cross section of RLV fuselage on aerodynamic characteristics were studied. We conducted an intensive study on various shapes of cross section in order to improve Lift-to-Drag ratio (L/D) characteristics of RLV. For wing body models, the effects of wing planform on aerodynamic characteristics are strong at subsonic speed and the effects become weak as free stream Mach number is increased. The difference of aerodynamic characteristics between single delta and double delta is mainly due to the structure of separation vortices. There are little differences in the (L/D) max value of wing body models and lifting body model 2 at supersonic speed. Wing body models have high (L/D) max value at subsonic speed. For fuselage alone models, triangle model has highest value of (L/D) max=2.90 at U∞ = 20 m/s. The result suggests that high L/D can be possible by using high performance fuselage.

Original languageEnglish
Pages1985-1993
Number of pages9
Publication statusPublished - 2003
Event54th International Astronautical Congress of the International Astronautical Federation (IAF), the International Academy of Astronautics and the International Institute of Space Law - Bremen, Germany
Duration: Sept 29 2003Oct 3 2003

Other

Other54th International Astronautical Congress of the International Astronautical Federation (IAF), the International Academy of Astronautics and the International Institute of Space Law
Country/TerritoryGermany
CityBremen
Period9/29/0310/3/03

All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes

  • General Engineering

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'A study on fundamental aerodynamic characteristics of future space transportation systems'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this