Experimental research on a hypersonic configuration with blunt forebody edges

Abstract

A design method, for hypersonic forebody configuration with blunt edges, was developed by lift body and waverider. Experimental study was conducted. It was showed that the difference of pressure coefficient, at centre-line and side-line on forebody precompression surface, was between 2.5% and 16.7% within the Mach number 5 to 7 and attack angle 0 to 12. These differences were slightly bigger than those of non-blunt-edges forebody. However, experimental data also show that the present configuration can achieve the closed shockwave, and can also realize the automatic overflow of boundary layer on forebody pre-compression surface. It is also observed that the present forebody gets a good aerodynamic performance at high Mach numbers. But with increasing attack angle, the advantage was weakened gradually. And, at the degree of side-slip exceeding 8, the side-line pressure is higher than that of center-line, which indicates that the forebody boundary layer does not achiev automatically overflowing to side surface.