Fast prediction based on effective numerical method for aerodynamic force and heat of high speed vehicles

A fast aerodynamic characteristics prediction technique is developed to predict aerodynamic force and heat, combining effective space marching numerical method with engineering method based on surface stream tracking technique. Hypersonic aerodynamic forces are obtained effectively by solving the Euler equations numerically with fast space marching method. In order to calculate the heat flux, an engineering method, called tracking the surface stream trace based on the axisymmetric analogue technique and boundary layer theory, is adopted and developed to be applicable for complex geometry. The inviscid flow parameters and surface stream lines required in the engineering method are obtained from above mentioned inviscous numerical flow fields. The proposed method for aerodynamic force and heat prediction is applied to high speed vehicles, the results show that the space marching method saves the computational cost enormously, approximately one order less comparing to the time marching method, while the two methods have similar precision in aerodynamic force evaluation. The predicted error of heat flux is within 20% comparing to that of wind tunnel test. The technique promoted is an effective approach suitable for the needs of fast aerodynamic configuration design and optimization.