Shock Tunnel Studies of the Hypersonic

Flowfield around the Hypervelocity Ballistic

Models with Aerospikes

G. Balakalyani, S. Saravanan, and G. Jagadeesh

1 Introduction

Reduced drag and aerodynamic heating are the two basic design requirements for
any hypersonic vehicle [1]. The flowfield around an axisymmetric blunt body is
characterized by a bow shockwave standing ahead of its nose. The pressure and
temperature behind this shock wave are very high. This increased pressure and
temperature are responsible for the high levels of drag and aerodynamic heating
over the body. In the past, there have been many investigations on the use of
aerospikes as a drag reduction tool. These studies on spiked bodies aim at
reducing both the drag and aerodynamic heating by modifying the hypersonic
flowfield ahead of the nose of the body [2]. However, most of them used very
simple configurations to experimentally study the drag reduction using spikes at
hypersonic speeds [3] and therefore very little experimental data is available for a
realistic geometric configuration. In the present study, the standard AGARD
Hypervelocity Ballistic model 1 is used as the test model. The addition of the
spike to the blunt body significantly alters the flowfield ahead of the nose, leading
to the formation of a low pressure conical recirculation region, thus causing a
reduction in drag and wall heat flux [4]. In the present investigation, aerodynamic
drag force is measured over the Hypervelocity Ballistic model-1, with and without
spike, at a flow enthalpy of 1.7 MJ/kg. The experiments are carried out at a Mach
number of 8 and at zero angle of attack. An internally mountable accelerometer
based 3-component force balance system is used to measure the aerodynamic
forces on the model. Also computational studies are carried out to complement the
experiments.

G. Balakalyani · S. Saravanan · G. Jagadeesh

Department of Aerospace Engineering, Indian Institute of Scinece, Bangalore, 560012, India

© Springer International Publishing Switzerland 2015 681

R. Bonazza and D. Ranjan (eds.), 29th International Symposium on Shock Waves 1,
DOI: 10.1007/978-3-319-16835-7_109
682 G. Balakalyani, S. Saravanan, and G. Jagadeesh

2 Experimental Facilities

The experiments are carried out in the Hypersonic Shock Tunnel-2 at IISc. The
description of the tunnel is given in table-1. The tunnel uses helium as the driver
gas and the test gas used is air. The schematic of HST-2 is given in figure-1.
Pressure sensors (PCB) are mounted on the inner side of the driven section of the
shock tube to measure the shock speeds. For HST-2, the effective test time
available is around 800 µs. The flow visualization is obtained using the Schlieren
setup.

Table 1 Description of the HST-2

Tunnel Parameters : HST – 2

Driver Section Length: 2m

Driven Section Length: 5.12 m

Shock Tube Internal Diameter: 50 mm

Shock Tube External Diameter: 75 mm

Test Section: 300 mm X 300 mm X 450 mm

Mach number Range: 5.75 - 12

Maximum Total Enthalpy: 3 MJ/kg

Reynolds number Range: 1-2 million/m

3 Model Descriptions

The hypervelocity ballistic model has a hemispherical nose followed by a conical

shoulder and a cylindrical after-body. The model is 245 mm long and its base
diameter is 50 mm. The model is fabricated using duralumin. A photograph of the
model is given in figure-2. An internally mountable accelerometer based force
balance sys-tem is used for measuring the aerodynamic forces on the model. A
photograph of the force balance is shown in figure-3. The spike used for the study
is 50 mm long and 5 mm in diameter with a pointed tip.
Shock Tunnel Studies of the Hypersonic Flowfield 683

4 Results and Discussion

Experiments were carried out at Mach 8 and at zero angle of attack for the HB1
model with and without spike. The flow enthalpy for the experiments is 1.7 MJ/kg
and the free-stream velocity is 1.79 km/sec. The free-stream and reservoir
conditions are shown in table-2. The spike pushes the bow shock away from the
body and replaces the strong bow shock with a weaker shock system. This results
in the formation of a conical dead air region around the nose of the body. Figure-4
shows the Schlieren picture of the HB1 model with spike. The pressure and heat
transfer within this recirculation region are relatively low and are responsible for
the reduction in drag and wall heat flux. However when the shock reattaches to the
body, the pressure and heat transfer shoot up. The ratio of length of the spike to
the blunt body diameter is 1 for this study. For a given blunt body diameter, the
length of the spike can be varied to find the optimum length for maximum drag
reduction [7]. Also for certain ranges of spike lengths and shapes, the flow
becomes unsteady resulting in pressure fluctuations [8]. The two distinct unsteady
flow modes observed include pulsation and oscillation [9, 10]. These unsteady
phenomena are undesirable as they can lead to an increase in pressure and heating
loads. Therefore on varying the length and shape of the spike, it should be ensured
that these flow instabilities do not affect the flowfield around the spiked body.
A total of 6 experiments were carried out for each case (with and without spike)
and the mean values were taken. The drag signal recorded by the accelerometer is
obtained and processed by a PC-based data acquisition system with the required
software.

Table 2 Reservoir conditions and free-stream conditions

Freestream Conditions at Mach 8

To 1700 K

Po 3360 kPa

M∞ 8.46

P∞ 217 Pa

T∞ 111 K

U∞ 1790 K

ρ∞ 0.007 kg/m3
684 G. Balakalyani, S. Saravanan, and G. Jagadeesh

Figure-5 shows the Pitot pressure history superimposed on the drag signal and
indicates the steady test time. Drag values for the HB1 model, with and without
spikes are plotted in figure-6.
The percentage reduction in drag observed with the pointed spike is 36.0%.
The computational results qualitatively match with the experimental results.
Ansys Fluent 13.0 is used for the study. 2D, axisymmetric, steady state analysis
was carried out. Grid independence was achieved for each case. Table-3 compares
the drag values obtained from the experimental and computational studies for the
HB1 model, with and without spike, at Mach 8.

Table 3 Comparison of drag values from experimental and computational studies

Drag Experiment CFD

Without Spike 6.69 N 11.52 N

Mach 8
With Spike 4.92 N 8.36 N

5 Conclusions

Experiments were carried out to investigate the effectiveness of a spike as a drag

reduction tool for Hypervelocity Ballistic Model-1. Reduction in drag is observed
when a spike is attached to the stagnation point of the model. Heat transfer studies
are underway. Experiments are also planned in the shock tunnel to investigate the
unsteady phenomena that occur with the spiked bodies.

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Shock Tunnel Studies of the Hypersonic Flowfield 685

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