A design concept for the construction of a complete hypersonic vehicle from 2D flowfields

This study describes the design of a complete hypersonic vehicle configuration from prescribed Two-Dimensional shock waves. Through the coupled use of the exact solutions of shock waves in an ideal gas, and the exact representations of planar geometric shapes, a series of elementary vehicle configurations are developed and analyzed. The hypersonic vehicle design process is accomplished through the use of specially developed subroutines, programmed in FORTRAN, to manipulate and piece these elementary configurations into a single aircraft. The elementary configurations of interest to this study include the caret-shaped and the star-shaped waveriders; along with waverider-derived fore-bodies, scramjets and nozzles. This paper describes the design process that configures and assembles the elementary configurations into a complete hypersonic vehicle. As part of this effort a FORTRAN code was developed. As its output, the design code generates and analyzes hypersonic configurations that can be visualized using TECPLOT. Further, the algorithms used to evaluate the resulting aerothermodynamic and geometric characteristics of the hypersonic vehicles; such as the heat flux, lift and drag, and the surface areas and volume, are based on empirical engineering correlation and strict geometric principles. The code was used to conduct the following studies: Generate hypersonic vehicle configurations from prescribed 2-D shock waves; Evaluate the resulting vehicle surface area and volume; Evaluate the shear stress and pressure distribution on the vehicle surface; Conduct an aerothermodynamic analysis of the resulting vehicle, and; Identify the design parameters that affect the vehicle's overall performance and shape. Finally, the vehicle design parameters are manipulated to generate hypersonic configurations with superior aerodynamic.