Aerodynamics Characteristics of Hypersonic Vehicle in Near Space

The purpose of the current study is to examine the aerodynamic characteristics of two hypersonic vehicles in near space. One is derived from waverider shape, and the other from liftbody. The objective of this study are threefold. The first is to creat an computational database for hypersonic vehicle configurations. The second is to examine the effects of individual vehicle components on hypersonic configurations and to determine the differences in aerodynamic characteristics that result from integrating all vehicle components. The third objective is to evaluate the controllability of each of the fully integrated vehicles and the effectiveness of the control surface design. These objectives were accomplished using DSMC solutions and aerodynamic code developed in Northwestern Polytechnical University. The results are analyzed also in three sections. First, the results of the waverider shape and liftbody shape without integrated vehicle components are presented. Second, the results of adding aircraft components to the waverider shape and liftbody shape are presented. Finally, the aerodynamic characteristics of the fully integrated waverider-derived configuration and liftbody-derived configuration are examined and compared with those of the pure waverider shape and liftbody shape. Comparation between fully integrated waverider-derived configuration and liftbody-derived configuration are also presented in this paper.