Computation of Drag of a Ballistic
Reentry Body at Various Mach Numbers
S. Balasubramanian, G. Vidya, and Ganapati Joshi
Abstract It is necessary to dissipate the kinetic and potential energy of a reentry
object from Earth orbit and recover it on the ground with small impact point dispersion
without exceeding thermal and structural limits. This can be accomplished either
through aerodynamics or propulsion or both. The entry can be ballistic, semi-ballistic
or lifting entry. In a non-propulsive ballistic entry, drag is the important aerodynamic
parameter that influences the trajectory design other than the mass and entry flight
path angle. While re-entering into the atmosphere, deceleration is very high because
of Earth gravitational force, to reduce the deceleration rate drag of the configuration
should be very high. To increase the drag reentry configuration has to be blunt. In
this paper, the flow field around a typical ballistic reentry body has been investigated
using RANS CFD simulations. Ansys-Fluent, CFD++ with Spalart-Allmaras and
realizable k-ε turbulence models have been used in the present analysis. In this
paper, various drag properties for a spherically blunt cone flare configuration, codeto-code comparison of drag and Cp distribution on the body have been discussed for
various Mach numbers.
Keywords Blunt cone flare configuration · CFD · C D · Fluent · CFD++
1 Configuration Details
The model is a spherically blunt with a 20° cone angle and a 25° flare angle. The base
diameter is D, the length of the configuration is 0.8D and the nose radius is 0.25D as
shown in Fig. 1. The configuration has been generated using the ANSYS-SpaceClaim
S. Balasubramanian (B) · G. Joshi
Department of Aerospace Engineering, Defence Institute of Advanced Technology (DIAT),
Pune, India
e-mail: scientistbala1103@gmail.com
G. Vidya
VSSC, ISRO, Thiruvananthapuram, India
e-mail: g_vidya@vssc.gov.in
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license
to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021
N. Gascoin and E. Balasubramanian (eds.), Innovative Design, Analysis
and Development Practices in Aerospace and Automotive Engineering, Lecture Notes
in Mechanical Engineering, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-6619-6_58
529
Reentry Body at Various Mach Numbers
S. Balasubramanian, G. Vidya, and Ganapati Joshi
Abstract It is necessary to dissipate the kinetic and potential energy of a reentry
object from Earth orbit and recover it on the ground with small impact point dispersion
without exceeding thermal and structural limits. This can be accomplished either
through aerodynamics or propulsion or both. The entry can be ballistic, semi-ballistic
or lifting entry. In a non-propulsive ballistic entry, drag is the important aerodynamic
parameter that influences the trajectory design other than the mass and entry flight
path angle. While re-entering into the atmosphere, deceleration is very high because
of Earth gravitational force, to reduce the deceleration rate drag of the configuration
should be very high. To increase the drag reentry configuration has to be blunt. In
this paper, the flow field around a typical ballistic reentry body has been investigated
using RANS CFD simulations. Ansys-Fluent, CFD++ with Spalart-Allmaras and
realizable k-ε turbulence models have been used in the present analysis. In this
paper, various drag properties for a spherically blunt cone flare configuration, codeto-code comparison of drag and Cp distribution on the body have been discussed for
various Mach numbers.
Keywords Blunt cone flare configuration · CFD · C D · Fluent · CFD++
1 Configuration Details
The model is a spherically blunt with a 20° cone angle and a 25° flare angle. The base
diameter is D, the length of the configuration is 0.8D and the nose radius is 0.25D as
shown in Fig. 1. The configuration has been generated using the ANSYS-SpaceClaim
S. Balasubramanian (B) · G. Joshi
Department of Aerospace Engineering, Defence Institute of Advanced Technology (DIAT),
Pune, India
e-mail: scientistbala1103@gmail.com
G. Vidya
VSSC, ISRO, Thiruvananthapuram, India
e-mail: g_vidya@vssc.gov.in
© The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license
to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd. 2021
N. Gascoin and E. Balasubramanian (eds.), Innovative Design, Analysis
and Development Practices in Aerospace and Automotive Engineering, Lecture Notes
in Mechanical Engineering, https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-15-6619-6_58
529