Aerodynamic Heating of Hypersonic Flows: Computational, Theoretical, and Experimental Studies

Accurate aerodynamic heating predictions are essential to quantify the thermal load on high-speed vehicles to ensure their integrity and safety. In this work, the aerodynamic heating over blunt bodies calculated or measured using computational, theoretical, and experimental methods is investigated under low- and high-enthalpy flow conditions. The objective of the work is to use the comparative analysis to evaluate the sensitivity of computational predictions, especially at the stagnation point, by benchmarking against theoretical models and experimental data. The computational predictions from the SU2 CFD solver and the theoretical predictions from the Fay-Riddell model are compared with experiments from the University of Arizona Mach 5 Ludwieg Tube (LT5) for low-enthalpy flow, and from the CUBRC 48-inch LENS facility and DLR's Shock Tunnel Göttingen for high-enthalpy flow. The experiments were performed for hemispherical and cylindrical geometries. The comparisons of predictions show good agreement between computational, theoretical, and experimental data. It was concluded that the computational results are least reliable and most sensitive at the stagnation point, requiring careful analysis to compare with theoretical and experimental results.