A Re-entry Vehicle is a spacecraft that travels through space and re-enters the

atmosphere of a planet (Earth), and most of the time, does not have an engine.
When returning to Earth or when landing on another planet, a safe reentry through

the atmosphere is needed.

Safe re-entry can be difficult, because the very high speed of the spacecraft creates

very high temperatures, when entering through the atmosphere.

Hence we need to study the aerodynamics, which involves the prediction of forces

produced on the vehicle by the atmosphere.

This seminar topic mainly concentrate on the aerodynamics of such reentry vehicles

like shape of the vehicle to be used, early designs and effect of different parameters
on heating and shock waves.

 Newtons sine squared law, states that the pressure coefficient is proportional to the

sine square of the angle between a tangent to the surface and the direction of free

stream.
Under these assumptions, the nondimensional pressure coefficient, Cp , at any point

on the surface of a body can be obtained from the Newtonian sine-squared

relation.
= 22

fig(1): momentum transfer of particles on inclined surface

 Newton originally applied his theory to model the pressure on the walls of a water

channel. Experimental tests performed by dAlembert later concluded that this

model is inaccurate for subsonic flow conditions.

However, as the Mach number increases to hypersonic speeds, the shock wave

approaches the surface of the body. Thus as the flow velocity changes direction
after crossing the shock, the flow appears to be deflected by the body similar to
Newtonian flow theory as shown in fig(1)
As the Mach number continues to increase, the shock continues to approach the

body surface. Thus, as Mach number increases, Newtonian flow theory improves

in accuracy and the aerodynamic coefficients are computed independent of Mach

number

Step 1: Surface Parameterization

r = [f(u, v) g(u, v) h(u, v)]T
Step 2: Compute pressure coefficient
sin =
Step 3: Compute Shadow Boundary
Step 4: Compute Reference Values
=

Step 5: Evaluate Surface integral

Step 6: Output Aerodynamics Code

1.Sharp Cone Family

The sharp cone family is parametrized by the cone half-angle, and
length along the axis of revolution, L. The surface of the sharp cone is
parametrized using the local radius from the axis of revolution, = and
revolution angle, =

Comparisons between the analytic relations and CBAERO in both force and
moment coefficients for a 20 sideslip and various cone half angles and angles of
attack excellent agreement was observed between the analytic moment equations
and CBAERO.

Sharp cone force coefficient validation, =20

2.Spherical Segment Family

The spherical segment family is parametrized by the nose radius,
and cone half-angle,

3.Cylindrical Segment Family

The cylindrical segment family is parametrized by the nose radius, ,
and blended wedge half-angle, .

 The shape of common entry vehicles can be determined through

superposition of basic shapes.

Sphere-cones can be constructed using a spherical segment and a single

conical frustum, and

Biconics can be constructed using a spherical segment and two conical

frustums.

Ballistic coefficient
During reentry phase the drag is force is resisting the vehicles motion. So it is
decelerating the vehicle. From Newtons second law of motion this deceleration
can be written as
= 12 2
This quantity

has had a special significance in describing how an object

moves through the atmosphere. By convention, engineers invert this term and

call it the Ballistic coefficient, =

From this basic relationships, we can show that the amount of deceleration an
object experiences while traveling through the atmosphere is inversely related to
the object's ballistic coefficient.

In everyday terms, we would say a light, blunt vehicle (low BC) slows down
much more rapidly than a heavy, streamlined (high BC) one, as shown in Figure

Generally shock wave will be developed during reentry phase, Depending on

the vehicles shape, the shock wave can either be attached or detached.
If the vehicle is streamlined (high BC, like a cone), the shock wave may
attach to the tip and transfer a lot of heat, causing localized heating at the
attachment point.
If the vehicle is blunt (low BC, like a rock), the shock wave will detach and
curve in front of the vehicle, leaving a boundary of air between the shock
wave and the vehicles surface.

We can quantify the heating rate, a re-entry vehicle experiences as

= 1.83 104 3

we can plot heating rate, versus altitude for various re-entry velocities as sown
in graph. We see that the maximum heating rate increases as the reentry velocity
goes up.

We can find the altitude and velocity where the maximum heating rate
occurs using
1

0
3 sin

and = 0.846

We also can vary the re-entry flight-path angle, to see how it affects the
maximum heating rate as shown in graph

Steep re-entry angles cause high maximum heating rates but for a short
time
Shallow re-entry causes low maximum heating rates but for a long time

The higher the BC (the more streamlined the vehicle), the deeper it
plunges into the atmosphere. This means a streamlined vehicle spends less time
in the atmosphere and reaches the ground long before a blunt vehicle.

The maximum heating rate is much more severe for the high-BC
(streamlined) vehicle and occurs much lower in the atmosphere.
The shape of the shock wave surrounding each vehicle causes this difference
Blunt vehicles have detached shock waves that spread the heat of re-entry
over a relatively large volume
Streamlined vehicles, on the other hand, have attached shock waves. This
situation concentrates a large amount of heat near the sharp tip causing it to
reach very high temperatures, hot enough to melt most materials
In addition, the heat around the vehicle stays in a smaller volume, As a result,
the overall heating rate is higher

To protect the vehicle from severe hot condition we use specially formulated
materials and design techniques called thermal protection systems (TPS). Well
look at three approaches to TPS

Heat sinks

Ablation

Radiative cooling

Heat sink using extra material to absorb the heat, keeping the peak temperature
lower.
In ablation technique the vehicles surface is coated with a material having a
very high latent heat of fusion, such as carbon or ceramics. As this material
melts or vaporizes, it soaks up large amounts of heat energy and protects the
vehicle.
The process of reducing equilibrium temperatures by emitting most of the heat
energy before a vehicles structure can absorb it is known as radiative cooling

1. Re-entry at high total angle of attack provides a reduction in both

maximum heating rate and total heating encountered.

2. It is possible by suitable choice of configurations to obtain a vehicle

with desirable aerodynamic characteristics during entry and good
subsonic flying qualities for landing.

3. We can meet requirement on the design front by changing vehicle

shape & size, vehicle thermal protection systems.

 Michael J. Grant and Robert D. Brauny, Analytic Hypersonic Aerodynamics for

Conceptual Design of Entry Vehicles, 48th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting

Including the New Horizons Forum and Aerospace Exposition 4 - 7 January 2010.
John D Anderson Jr, Fundamentals of aerodynamics, fifth edition Tata Mcgraw

hill publication.
Sheikh Arslan Ali, Dr. Mukkarum Husain, Dr. M. Nauman Qureshi, Effects of

Nose-Bluntness Ratio on Aerodynamic Performance for Re-entry Vehicle, Journal

of Space Technology, Vol 1, No. 1, July 2012.
Steven P. Schneider, Hypersonic laminarturbulent transition on circular cones and

scramjet forebodies, Progress in Aerospace Sciences, Volume 40, Issues 12,

February 2004, Pages 1-50