Numerical simulation of reentry flow around the Shuttle Orbiter including real gas effects

The flight environment of a reentry vehicle is predicted from the numerical solution of fluid dynamics equations for the region between the blunt nose and the swept wings. The inviscid portion of the shock layer is modeled by the Euler equations, but the laminar viscous flow adjacent to the wall is modeled by the approximate parabolic Navier-Stokes equations. The approximations made to the axial gradients of pressure and diffusive fluxes enable the coupled inviscid and viscous equations to be solved efficiently along the body axis. The equilibrium air aftbody code contains significant improvements over its predecessor which only considers a perfect gas model and noncircular configurations. The inclusion of numerical damping either explicitly or implicitly has extended its capabilities for predicting flow field around a winged configuration at higher Machs and greater angles of attack. The results are obtained on the cylindrical coordinates and satisfactory for the Shuttle Orbiter at a free-stream Mach number of 22 and an angle of attack of 40 deg. Also discussed are the inviscid formulation and its application for wind-tunnel conditions.