A parametric study on the aerodynamic characteristics of a hypersonic waverider vehicle Wei Huang a,b,n , Lin Ma b , Zhen-guo Wang a , Mohamed Pourkashanian b , Derek B. Ingham b , Shi-bin Luo a , Jing Lei a a Institute of Aerospace and Materials Engineering, National University of Defense Technology, Changsha, Hunan 410073, PR China b Centre for CFD, School of Process, Environmental and Materials Engineering, University of Leeds, LS2 9JT, UK article info Article history: Received 15 February 2010 Received in revised form 13 January 2011 Accepted 25 February 2011 Available online 21 March 2011 Keywords: Aerospace propulsion systems Hypersonic waverider vehicles Aerodynamic characteristics Angle of attack Angle of the sideslip Mach number abstract Hypersonic waverider vehicles with a high lift-to-drag ratio have drawn an ever increasing attention. In this paper, a parametric analysis method has been employed to investigate the effects of the angle of attack, angle of the sideslip and the inflow Mach number on the aerodynamic performance of the vehicle by numerically solving the governing fluid flow equations for the flow field around a hypersonic slender cone. The results obtained show that the flow field around the investigated hypersonic vehicle can satisfy the aerodynamic requirements of the vehicle. At larger angles of attack, the ratio of the lift-to-drag of the vehicle is higher among the range considered, and it will be advantageous for vehicles that cruise at smaller angles of attack. Changing the angle of the sideslip can have a significant impact on the lateral performance of the vehicle; however, its effects on the drag and lift of the vehicle are very limited. On increasing the inflow Mach number, the aerodynamic performance of the vehicle improves for the range of Mach numbers considered. This investigation provides researchers with guidelines for the optimization of the design of this class of vehicle. & 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. 1. Introduction Near space is generally defined as the blank region between 20 and 100 km, including a majority of regions in the stratosphere, the mesosphere and partial regions in the thermosphere, and this environment cannot support the vehicle with enough air to cruise for a long time. Recently, the strategic value of the near space has drawn an ever increasing attention of many countries, and the research on the near-space aircraft has substantially increased [1]. In order to satisfy the high aerodynamic requirement of the near space, many kinds of aircraft configuration have been brought forward, namely the lift body and waverider. In 1959, Nonweiler [2] brought forward the waverider flying concept for the first time. With the success of the Hyper-X project [3,4] and the first flight test of X-51A on May 26, 2010 [5], the investigation of hypersonic vehicles has drawn an ever increasing attention of researchers worldwide. The hypersonic waverider vehicle with a high lift-to-drag ratio is one of the most promising aerodynamic configurations for future hypersonic vehicles [6], and how to design their config- urations and obtain their aerodynamic performances has become one of the most important key developments in recent years. At the same time, the atmospheric environ- ment has a large impact on the aerodynamic character- istics of the hypersonic vehicle, and how to maintain high Contents lists available at ScienceDirect journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/actaastro Acta Astronautica 0094-5765/$ - see front matter & 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved. doi:10.1016/j.actaastro.2011.02.016 n Corresponding author at: Institute of Aerospace and Materials Engineering, National University of Defense Technology, Changsha, Hunan 410073, PR China E-mail addresses: gladrain2001@yahoo.com.cn (W. Huang), L.Ma@leeds.ac.uk (L. Ma), zgwang@nudt.edu.cn (Z.-g. Wang), M.Pourkashanian@leeds.ac.uk (M. Pourkashanian), D.B.Ingham@leeds.ac.uk (D.B. Ingham), luoshibin@sina.com (S.-b. Luo), nudtleijing@gmail.com (J. Lei). Acta Astronautica 69 (2011) 135–140