A Rapid Analysis Tool for Aerodynamics/Aerothermodynamics of Hypersonic Vehicles

A rapid engineering surface panel method to analyze aerodynamics and aerothermodynamics of hypersonic vehicles is developed. To obtain the surface pressure distribution of a hypersonic vehicle, the local surface inclination method is applied to calculate the pressure coefficient for each surface panel element, of which the normal vector is corrected first by using an efficient data structure and Rey-casting algorithm, local Reynolds numbers are calculated according to the geometric streamline method, then the aerodynamic heating flux is computed by both reference enthalpy relations and Reynolds analogy method. Several typical test cases are performed and the results indicate that, the developed tool is effective in predicting the aerodynamics/aerothermodynamics for complex geometry of hypersonic vehicle in a wide range of Mach numbers with a sufficient accuracy.