Leading-edge bluntness effects on aerodynamic heating and drag of power law body in low-density hypersonic flow

Abstract

A numerical study is reported on power law shaped leading edges situated in a rarefied hypersonic flow. The sensitivity of the heat flux and drag coefficient to shape variations of such leading edges is calculated by using a Direct Simulation Monte Carlo method. Calculations show that the stagnation point heating on power law leading edges with finite radius of curvature follows the same relation for classical blunt body in continuum flow; it scales inversely with the square root of the curvature radius at the nose. Furthermore, for those leading edges with zero or infinity radii of curvature, the heat transfer behavior is in surprising agreement with that for classical blunt body far from the nose of the leading edge. Copyright © 2005 by ABCM.