Abstract:
One of the key points of vehicle aerodynamic configuration design is aerodynamic control surfaces design. The pressure center of gliding vehicle varied signifacantly with the flight height and Mach numbers in near-space. Aerodynamic configuration is needed to be designed carefully to ensure both high lift to drag ratio and high control surface efficiency, and hinge moment of control surface restrictions should also be considered, so it is very important to choose suitable control surfaces for near-space hypersonic gliding vehicle at hypersonic speed. Three kinds of different aerodynamic rudders were matched for liftbody shaped vehicle as control surfaces, namely as FLAP rudder、trailing edge rudder and all-movable rudder. The numerical simulation method was employed to analyse rudder effect, and wind tunnel investigation of gliding vehicle with all-movable rudder was carried out to obtain its aerodynamic characteristics. The results showed that all-movable rudder has a higher capacity to adjust pressure centre in longitudinal direction, which implied enough trim ability. Rudder effect of all-movable rudder is found to be higher than that of the other two rudders as yaw and roll control devices. At the same time, all-movable rudder can reduce effectively the demands of steering engine load.The research indicated that all-movable rudder has some advantages over the other rudders as aerodynamic control surfaces for near-space hypersonic liftbody shaped vehicle.