Flowfield computations and comparison with Shuttle aerodynamic data

An in-house developed flow solver, E3D, has been applied to investigate the flow field around the Shuttle Orbiter over an angle-of-attack range of 0 deg to 60 deg at Mach 3.5 and 10.0. The 3D Euler equations are integrated by means of a time-marching finite-volume shock-capturing method, based on cell-centered and upwind evaluation of the cell face fluxes with van Leer or Roe's flux-splitting techniques. A comparison of CFD, wind tunnel, and aeronautical data base is presented. Solutions are in very good agreement with available experimental data. Through the comparisons, it is demonstrated that the E3D code is capable of evaluating total aerodynamic performance.