Aerodynamics specifics of thin-walled structures

This paper presents results of numerical investigation of a model flow of a typical cylinder- and conical-shaped nose fairing half in a range of special incidence angles of 0...360° at various free stream velocities using well proven software solutions AeroShape-3D and FlowVision. Structures of flows near the body skin are obtained, aerodynamic characteristics of the halves are calculated, calculated values were compared to data of the experimental studies conducted at TsNIImash. An extremely complicated nature of flow of thin-walled configurations with numerous zones of flow separation phenomenon and compression shock waves in the flow field has been determined. The results obtained in different software packages are slightly different and with acceptable accuracy coincide with experimental data available. Thus, a possibility of successful use of mathematical modeling to predict aerodynamic characteristics of thin-walled structural elements to determine their impact areas was confirmed. The task of reliable determination and reduction of sizes of restricted zones for separable structural elements of the launch vehicles is very urgent due to intensive development of territories used today as impact areas. A successful solution of this problem to a large extent depends on the possibility of studying the aerodynamic characteristics of the separated structural elements at a three-dimensional motion within the flight speed range.