Coupled Fluid–Thermal Analysis of Combinational Nonablative Thermal Protection System Concept

Abstract

To reduce the aerodynamic heating of the hypersonic vehicle, a new concept of the combinational nonablative thermal protection system (CNA-TPS) is proposed in this paper, which consists of the spiked body, forward-facing cavity, and opposing jet. The tightly coupled fluid–thermal numerical method was adopted to analyze its thermal control performance. The results show that CNA-TPS pushes the bow shock away from the wall and reduces the shock intensity, and the low-enthalpy gas of the opposing jet separates the high-temperature gas behind the bow shock from the wall. CNA-TPS reduces the aerodynamic heating and the structural temperature by reconstructing the flowfield, and its thermal control performance is superior to the other existing combined thermal protection systems. Finally, increasing both the length of the spiked body and the diameter of the opposing jet can improve the thermal control performance of CNA-TPS and increase the backflow area of the flowfield, which causes the position of the reattachment point and the maximum wall heat flux to move downstream. All the investigations in this paper show the feasibility and advantages of CNA-TPS in the engineering application.