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Reduction of base drag on launch vehicles
| Content Provider | NASA Technical Reports Server (NTRS) |
|---|---|
| Author | Naughton, Jonathan W. |
| Copyright Year | 2002 |
| Description | Current reentry vehicle designs exhibit large amounts of base drag due to large base areas. These large base areas can arise from the integration of the propulsion system (X-33) or control surface placement (X-38). Large base drag limits the vehicle's cross-range capability and causes a large glide-slope angle. Fortunately, there appears to be a possible means of lowering the base drag on these vehicles. Based on early work on the subsonic aerodynamics of lifting bodies, it appears that the addition of small amounts of viscous fore-body drag can produce a significant reduction in base drag. Recent work suggests that this phenomenon also occurs in the transonic and supersonic flight regimes. This report summarizes a study designed to demonstrate the reduction of base drag through the addition of fore-body viscous drag. The present study has focused on the measurement of viscous fore-body drag and the demonstration of the relationship between fore-body viscous drag and base drag at Reynolds Numbers up to 2.5 x 10(exp 6). The results of the present work do not conclusively demonstrate that viscous fore-body drag reduces base drag. The apparent contradictory results of the present study are attributed to the different geometry used in the present study. However, the results suggest that the increased boundary layer thickness at separation caused by larger fore-body viscous drag somehow affects the vortex structure in the wake thereby reducing the base drag. More research is required to confirm this postulated mechanism. |
| File Size | 739054 |
| Page Count | 17 |
| File Format | |
| Alternate Webpage(s) | http://archive.org/details/NASA_NTRS_Archive_20020070521 |
| Archival Resource Key | ark:/13960/t16m86f2f |
| Language | English |
| Publisher Date | 2002-01-01 |
| Access Restriction | Open |
| Subject Keyword | Launch Vehicles And Launch Operations Viscous Drag Aerodynamic Drag Base Flow Launch Vehicles Drag Reduction Lifting Bodies Vortices Boundary Layer Thickness Control Surfaces Wakes Reentry Vehicles Forebodies Ntrs Nasa Technical Reports ServerĀ (ntrs) Nasa Technical Reports Server Aerodynamics Aircraft Aerospace Engineering Aerospace Aeronautic Space Science |
| Content Type | Text |
| Resource Type | Technical Report |