Invited Article

Hypersonic Application of ISRO Space Vehicle

Programs
Dipankar Das, VSSC
dipankar_das@vssc.gov.in

Abstract
This paper includes mainly the aero-thermodynamic issues related to hypersonic regimes of ISRO’s space vehicles.
The author’s invited talk on hypersonic application of ISRO space vehicle programs presented in the Hypersonic Symposium
in Hypersonic Technology at Ramaiah university is partly brought out in this paper. The critical issues like laminar-turbulent
transition, thermal and chemical nonequilibrium, stagnation point heating, communication blackout and effect of wall
catalyticity associated with hypersonic re-entry vehicles/space capsule are brought out with proper prospective. Different
numerical fluid dynamics approaches suitable for hypersonic flows are discussed. Several aerothermal aspects of the SRE
Space Re-entry Experiment conducted in the year 2007 are brought out. Two other important experiments like RLV HEX and
ATV D02 with scramjet engines in 2016 are also covered. Many important ongoing activities related to hypersonic space
vehicle programs like ORV (Orbital Launch Vehicle), HAVA (Hypersonic Air-breathing Vehicle with Airframe integrated),
Chandrayaan-2 and Gaganyaan Crew Module are beyond the scope of this paper

Key Words: ISRO, Orbital Launch Vehicle, Chandrayaan-2, Gaganyaan Crew Module

1. INTRODUCTION

The expendable and reusable launch vehicles experience the

hypersonic regime while traversing through the earth
atmosphere. The hypersonic regime where the static
enthalpy is small part of total enthalpy starts at Mach
number 5. The ascending launch vehicles attain the
hypersonic speed at high altitudes with manageable thermal
load on the vehicle, while the atmospheric re-entry vehicles
with very high velocity nearly 7km per second experienced
large thermal loads that demands the in-depth and thorough
understanding of real gas effects pertaining to high
temperature flows.
Fig. 1 Road Map of ISRO’S Space Vehicle Programs
ISRO’s launch vehicles like PSLV, GSLV and GSLV MK3
(Fig.1) enter in to the hypersonic regime (Max. Mach 8-10)
during ascent in sensible atmosphere. Re-entry vehicles like
Orbital Launch Vehicle and Space capsules like SRE and
Gaganyaan Crew module experience very high Mach
number of the order of 20-25 during the atmospheric re-
entry. The critical issues in hypersonic flows (Ref.1) are
shock-shock interaction and shock boundary layer
interaction which severely affect the performance of inlet
for Air-breathing engines, locally severe heating rates due
to shock impingement, laminar-turbulent transition, thermal
and chemical non-equilibrium, stagnation point heating,
Communication black out, effect of wall catalyticity,
radiation shock layer and rarefied flows.
Issues related to theoretical computation for hypersonic
flows are as follows. Owing to strong viscous-inviscid
interaction, Euler- Boundary layer coupling is not valid
since the shock or entropy layer is of the order of the
boundary layer thickness. Navier-Stokes equations are
essential which require high fidelity mesh for resolving
viscous effects in complex bodies and also appropriate
turbulence models for accurately capturing the shocks and
shock induced flow separation to predict loads and heating
rates. Among the schemes, HLLC and AUSM variants like
AUSM+ -up and AUSM+-2up (Ref.2) are accurate to
capture the bow shock ahead of the blunt body without
unphysical carbuncle around the stagnation region. The
popular Roe scheme fails to predict for the hypersonic flows
especially for the stagnation region of the blunt nose, which
predicts unphysical solution in the stagnation region.
The standard K-ε turbulence model with turbulent kinetic
energy over-prediction at the stagnation point and on the
curved surface in the hypersonic regime lacks the prediction
accuracy close to the wall. The realizable K-esp addresses
the weakness of the standard K-esp turbulence model on
close wall boundary layer resolution. However, realizable
K-esp model does not improve the under prediction aspect
of shock induced separation flows of standard K-esp
turbulence model. The k-omega turbulence model (Ref.3)
though it efficiently resolves the boundary layer, it is

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sensitively to external turbulence. SST k-omega model
which is a combination of K-omega turbulence model that
resolves efficiently the flow close to the wall and K-esp that
treats the flow away from the wall. However, SST-Kw
slightly over-predicts the separation due to shock boundary
layer interaction. Detached Eddy Simulations and LES are
the better options for resolving the entire flow field.
The laminar turbulent transition is effected by a number of
parameters like Mach number, Reynolds number, nose tip
bluntness, cross flow, free stream environment, wall
temperature, pressure gradient and surface roughness. The
free stream environment is an important initial condition for
boundary layer transition. One reason why the W/T data
cannot be directly extrapolated to the flight conditions is the
interaction of the strong acoustical disturbance from the
supersonic /hypersonic wind tunnel nozzle with the flow
past the model. Although boundary layer code (NASA TP
3271) predicts well for a simple geometry like cone as
shown in the fig.2, it fails to predict transition for the
complex configuration. The inaccurate prediction of
hypersonic transition point may affect the gross take-off
weight.
400
Computation
NASA TP 3271
300
Flight data
Reentry F
200
100
0 equilibrium and thermal equilibrium from 90km to 50km
0 0.2 0.4 0.6 0.8 1
Qw,(Btu/ft2)
Fig. 2 Transition on a sharp cone
Two popular empirical methods are being used extensively
for the boundary layer transition prediction at hypersonic
Mach regime in the absence generalized CFD prediction
capability especially in the hypersonic regime.
eNmethod: When the amplitude ratio A/A0 calculated from
the linear stability theory exceeds a preassigned value, then
transition is presumed to occur. For sharp cone, the value of
N is 10. Ao is initial amplitude and A is the time varying
local amplitude. The second method is, If ReθT/Me> 150-
250, transition occurs, where ReθT is the transition Reynolds
number based on momentum thickness. This method was
extensively used for space shuttle and used for SRE, where
the constant was taken as 150.
2. RE-ENTRY AEROTHERMODYNAMICS
The re-entry problems are associated with rarefied flows
(Ref.4-7) including free molecular and transition flows,
thermal and chemical non equilibrium, stagnation point
heating, wall catalyticity, communication black out and
radiating shock layer. Knudson’s number more than 10 is
free molecular regime, while the Knudson number (λ/D)
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lying between 0.001 and 10 indicates transition regime.
Where λ is the mean free path or the distance between two
successive collusions of particles and D is the characteristic
dimension. The fig.3 depicts the SRE trajectory with
rarefied and various continuum flow regimes.
Fig. 3 SRE Re-entry Trajectory
2.1 Space Re-Entry Experiment: SRE entered the
rarefied atmosphere (Ref.7-10) at 120km altitude with a
speed of 8km/s and traversed through the continuum flow
regime from 90km to sea level with the velocity from 8 km/s
to the touch down velocity 2m/s. The continuum flow
regime from 90 to sea-level includes chemical non-
with a velocity ranging from 8 km/s to 6.5km/s, chemical
and thermal equilibrium regime from 50km to 30km with
velocity ranging from 6.5km/s to 1.8km/sec and perfect gas
regime below 30km till touch-down.
100
LAMINAR
TURBULENT
Heat flux,W/cm2
60
LAMINAR
AT PEAK HE AT FLUX (170s) REY NOLDS NO = 130719
AT TRANSI TION (209s) REYNO LDS NO= 500000
20
-20
0 150 209 300 450 600
Time,s
Fig. 4a Heat Flux on SRE nose cone
2000
Measured
Computed Indepth temp(turbulent)
Computed Indepth temp(Laminar)
1500
Temperature,K
1000
500
0
0 100 200 300 400 500
Time,s
Fig. 4b Temperature on SRE nose cone
The computed heat flux for both laminar and turbulent flow
past SRE in the rarefied and continuum flow regimes is
shown in fig.4a. For the laminar computation, the heat flux
at the nose cone region rises to 35 W/cm2 at 165 seconds,
while in the laminar calculation the maximum heat flux rises
to 80 W/cm2. The flight measured heat flux is 29 W/cm2
which matches well with laminar results. Fig.4b shows the
comparison between the measured temperature and the
computed temperature on the cone during the decent of
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SRE. The maximum temperature of the laminar results
matches with the measurement.
From the heat flux and temperature comparison with the
measured value it may be concluded that the nose cone
experiences mostly the laminar boundary layer during the
flight.

Fig. 6a Density distribution comparison along the

Stagnation line between real gas and perfect
gas for Lobb Sphere at M=15

Fig. 5a Real gas effect on temperature and density

Fig. 6b Temperature comparison along the stagnation

line at M=15 and wall temperature 1000K and
Pinf=664Pa
Fig. 5b Effect of surf. Catalyticity on the heat flux

Fig. 5a shows the temperature and density pallets obtained

from CFD simulation at Mach number 20 and altitude
50km. In the real gas computation for SRE, the bow shock
stand up distance is shorter than the perfect gas shock stand
up distance. In a perfect gas computation, the temperature
behind the normal shock is around 22500 K for an upstream
Mach number of 20 and altitude 50km. At this temperature,
the atmospheric oxygen and nitrogen ionize after
dissociation through endothermic reaction. Heat is absorbed
and the temperature behind the shock reduces. And as a
result, the density behind the shock increases as compared Fig. 6c Flow field contour on double cone at Mach= 9.59,
to density after the shock in the perfect gas computation. T∞= 185.6 K and P∞= 36.05 pa
Shock stand up distance is inversely proportional to the
density after the shock. The standup distance reduces for the
real gas which allows the same mass flow per unit volume
through the shock as in the case perfect gas.
The effect of surface catalyticity is shown in fig.5b. If the
surface is fully catalytic, the surface will participate in the
oxygen and nitrogen atoms recombination to form their
respective free molecules and during this process the heat is
evolved and transferred to the surface. Such recombination
does not happen for non-catalytic wall. The flight derived
heat transfer coefficient falls between the estimated heat
fluxes of fully catalytic and non-catalytic surfaces. A
maximum difference of 100 w/cm2 is observed at the Fig. 6d Heat transfer coefficient comparison at Mach
stagnation region between catalytic and non-catalitic = 9.59, T∞= 185.6 K and P∞= 36.05 pa
surfaces. The maximum heat flux for the catalytic surface
case is 250 W/cm2 at the stagnation region.
The heat flux computation of in house CFD code PARAS is
validated against the double cone and lob sphere and the
comparison with experimental values are shown in Fig.6a-
6d.

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A comparison of pressure distribution of perfect gas and real
gas CFD results with flight measured data is shown in Fig.
7a. All the three CFD codes, PARAS, UNS2D and VSL
show a good comparison with flight measured data. The
real gas results of all the CFD codes’ results at zero angle of
attack falls between the measured pressure data on leeward
and windward surfaces at 1.21m from the nose across the
Mach number range from M=24 to M=14. Fig. 7b brings
out the stability comparison been real and perfect gas for
SRE at Mach number 20.3, altitude 52 km and velocity 6.7
km. The cumulative normal force coefficient and centre of
pressure plots show that the real gas effect increases the
stability of SRE.
Fig. 7a Pressure distribution comparison for SRE
between CFD results and flight measurement
Fig. 7b Cumulative CNalpha comparison between real
gas and perfect gas
Fig. 7c Cumulative Xcp Comparison between Real
and Perfect Gas
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Communication Blackout: Communication blackout
(Ref.11) is an unavoidable problem during the atmospheric
re-entry with very high Mach number. The temperature
behind the nose shock is high enough to dissociate and
ionize the atmospheric constituents O2 and N2 molecules
and allows the ionized molecules and electrons to form
plasma phase over the re-entry capsules which restricts the
electro-magnetic waves and communication with the
ground stations. If the critical plasma frequency is greater
than communication frequency, the communication black
out happens. Critical plasma frequency is expressed as Fp=
9*sqrt(Ne), where Ne is the electron number density. The
Chemical Non-equilibrium CFD approach can be followed
using ions/electrons as species to determine the electron or
ion number density to the estimate the plasma frequency.
The fig. 8a and 8b show the electron number density and
plasma frequency at stagnation point and 0.8m away with
respect to altitude. As shown in the fig.8a, the electron
number density is one order higher at stagnation region
compared to the other location. The black-out period for
SRE was found to be from 100km to 40km at stagnation
point as plotted in Fig.8b. The plasma frequency exceeds the
cut-off frequency for communication during this period. For
the other location, the communication black out is observed
from 70km to 48km. The choice of ground station is based
on the blackout criteria and the antenna position in re-entry
capsules like SRE.
Fig. 8a Electron number density
Fig. 8b Plasma frequency
2.2 Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV): After the
successful flight of RLV HEX mission (Ref. 12) a
technology demonstrator in the hypersonic regime on
May 2016, momentum is being gearing up in ISRO to
realize the futuristic Orbital Re-entry vehicle.
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The RLV after being jettisoned from the ascent vehicle
S9 attained the peak Mach number of 4.8 close to the
minimum bound of the hypersonic regime and it attained
maximum altitude of 64.8km.

Fig. 10a W/T Schiliren photo of Ascent Vehicle

Fig. 9a RLV HEX Configuration

Fig. 10b Normal force coefficient

The schileren picture of ascent vehicle as in Fig.10a portrays

the shock system at Mach number 6. Small differences
observed for normal force coefficient for two different
Fig. 9b RLV HEX with Accent Vehicle scales as shown in Fig 10b.

0.15

Basic Configuration

 L= -300,  R= 300
r r

 L= -300,  R=-300
e e
0.05
N
C

-0.05

Targeted and achieved mission parameters are

depicted in table1. The mission targeted parameters
are found to be close to the flight achieved parameters. -0.15
-4 -2 0 2 4 6 8

 (deg)

Fig. 11a Normal force coefficient of RLV decent Vehicle

with elevon deflection at M=6
0.025 0 0
 L = -30 ,  R = 30
r r

Basic Configuration
0 0
 L = -30 ,  R = -30
e e

Fig. 9c RLV HEX trajectory

Cm

-0.025
The RLV Hex trajectory (Ref.12) is shown in Fig.9 with
ascent and decent phases. Peak heat flux of 3.6W/cm2 was
observed at Mach number 3.5 during the decent. The ascent -0.050
-4 -2 0 2 4 6 8
and decent characteristics were obtained using CFD
 (deg)
(Ref.13) and W/T experiments (Ref.14) in 1 m hypersonic
wind tunnel at VSSC. The wind tunnel results are shown for
ascent vehicle case in Fig.10a. The test was conducted at Fig. 11b Moment coefficient of RLV decent Vehicle with
Mach number 6, Reynolds number 6.3*106 and AOA from elevon deflection
-20 to 40 with 1:20 and 1:65 scale models.

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The normal force and moment coefficient for RLV descent
vehicle with -300 elevon and +_300 rudder deflections with
respect to angle of attack variation from -4 to 8 deg. are
shown in Fig.11a and 11b. With elevon upward deflection
the normal force coefficient reduces resulting in the
decrease in moment coefficients as shown in above figures.
The pitch force and moment characteristics varies with the
magnitude and the directions of the rudder deflection.

Fig. 13b Flight trajectory of ATV D02

The flight propulsion test (Ref.15-18) was conducted

Fig. 12a Schlieren picture of RLV decent configuration
at α=-2 deg. and delta=30
around Mach number 6 as shown by the pill box in fig. 13b.
Where the trajectory of ATV D02 (Fig.13a) is portrayed.
Aerodynamic as well as propulsion characterization of ATV
D02 the scramjet propulsion test vehicle was done by
extensive CFD simulations in the presence of Hydrogen air
combustion.

Fig. 14a Flow past ATV D02 with H2-Air Combustion

Fig. 12b Infrared thermography of RLV

The Schlieren picture as in Fig.12a clearly brings out

the flow field with distinct shock system while the
Fig12b shows the infrared thermography that brings out
the surface temperature during the test. The pink color
impression on the nose and leading edges of the wings
and the rudder indicate high surface temperature at
freestream Mach number 6.
Scramjet Propulsion Demonstrator:
An emerging scenario of the India’s space and missile
technology sees a leap forward in the preparedness for
the scramjet propulsion. ISRO has successfully
conducted the scramjet propulsion test on 10 th August
2016 meeting every expectation as envisaged. The
propulsion test was conducted for five seconds dwell
time in regulated mode as planned. In addition, the test
continued for another 14 seconds in the blow down
mode.
Fig. 14b Flow field inside the combustor without
combustion
Fig. 14c Flow field inside the combustor with
combustion
The pressure pallet for the complete vehicle and the
combustor is shown in Fig. 14(a-c). As shown in Fig.14c
higher pressure is observed in the combustor due to H2-air
combustion.
The engine had produced 2287 ~ 4629 Newton thrust in the
active regulated mode of 5 seconds as per the prediction.
Similar values were extracted from flight trajectory re-
construction as shown in Fig.15a. The measured pressure
distribution along the floor of the engine modules had a
close match with the corresponding results of the CFD
prediction.

Fig.13a ATV D02 configuration

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Fig. 15a Total Engine thrust of ATV D02 Scramjet
Engine Module
Fig. 15b ATV D02 Combustor pressure CFD data
comparison with Flight data
Detailed CFD analysis had been carried out to characterize
the starting behavior of the intake of scramjet engines. The
study related to H2-Air Combustion was carried out by
using 7 species and 7 steps finite rate chemistry model,
which was incorporated in the in-house developed PARAS
code.
CFD simulations (with and without combustion) were
carried out for the complete configuration of ATV D02
sustainer carrying two scramjet engine modules at the rear
part of the sustainer to assess the influence of the fore-body
on the engine trust. The commercial code CFD++ with 9
species and 18 reaction steps finite rate chemistry model
was used for code to code comparison.
Fig. 16a ISRO’s self- propelled futuristic Scramjet
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Fig. 16b Futuristic scramjet with Ascent vehicle
Being inspired by the success of ATD D2 scramjet flight,
ISRO has been gearing up its momentum for accomplishing
future projects with scramjet propulsion, which would
finally lead to the emergence of the single/two stage to orbit
missions with rocket or turbine based combined cycle. Since
the ATV D02 flight, more than 130 configurations have
been studied to arrive at an airframe integrated scramjet
configuration which can meet the mission objective of
accelerating the vehicle from Mach 6 to 7 within 250 second
flight at an altitude of around 25 km and constant dynamic
pressure of 75 kPa with Kerosene as fuel.
3. CONCLUSION
The launch vehicles attain the maximum Mach number
between M=8 to M=10, while the atmospheric re-entry
capsule like SRE and Orbital Re-entry Vehicle enter the
atmosphere with Mach numbers between 20 to 26. Though
the launch vehicles traverse through the atmosphere with a
maximum Mach number ranging from 8 to 10 in the sensible
atmosphere, the maximum heat flux as well as thermal load
considered for the thermal protection system design are
found to occur at supersonic Mach number regime at lower
altitudes. For the atmospheric re-entry capsules like SRE
and Orbital re-entry vehicle, even at higher altitudes with
low density large thermal load owing to very high
hypersonic Mach number of the order of 25 drives the
thermal protection system design. Engineering methods
based on flow field input from CFD simulations and CFD
soft-ware for direct heat transfer computation are used for
thermal load estimation for the launch vehicles and space
capsules. Several aspects like chemical and thermal
equilibrium and non-equilibrium were addressed using
appropriate routines of existing CFD software like PARAS,
CFD++ and Fluent. The surface catalytic behavior to
enhance the heat transfer was also assessed.
Besides thermal issues other aspects like performance,
stability and controllability are very important for
configuration design of space vehicles, especially for the
winged space vehicle like RLV and hypersonic scramjet
vehicle. After the success of ATV D02 the scramjet
technology demonstrator, for last couple of years ISRO is
studying the possibility of the two stage to orbit mission
using rocket based combined cycle using rocket, ramjet and
scramjet propulsions.
7 Vol. 19 Issue 1
ISRO has wide experience in hypersonic applications. The
present Computational capability and Experimental facility
in ISRO meets the overall hypersonic aerodynamics
requirements of several projects. Further research in the area
of Thermal non-equilibrium, Shock Wave Radiation,
Hypersonic Boundary Layer Transition, Turbulence
Chemistry interaction, Hypersonic multiphase flow,
Hypersonic Rarefied flows, moving boundary problem,
mesh adaptation is the need of the moment.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
Thanks are due to the engineers of aero entity, RLV Project,
ATVP project, SRE project and MSA (all VSSC) for their
contribution and support.
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