Measured aerodynamic coefficients of without and with spiked blunt body at Mach 6

A spike attached to a blunt nosed body significantly alters its flow field and influences the aerodynamic coefficients at hypersonic speed. The basic body is an axisymmetric, with a hemisphere nose followed by a cylindrical portion. Five different types of spikes, namely, conical aerospike, hemisphere aerospike, flat-face aerospike, hemisphere aerodisk and flat-face aerodisk are attached to the basic body in order to assess the aerodynamic characteristic. The spiked blunt body without the aerospike or aerodisk has been set to be a basic model. The coefficients of drag, lift and pitching moment were measured with and without blunt spike body for the length-to-diameter ratio (L/D) of 0.5, 1.0, 1.5 and 2.0, at Mach 6 and angle of attack up to 8 degrees using a strain gauge balance. The measured forces and moment data are employed to determine the relative performance of the aerodynamic with respect to the basic model. A maximum of 77 percent drag reduction was achieved with hemisphere aerospike of L/D = 2.0. The comparison of aerodynamic coefficients between the basic model and the spiked blunt body reveals that the aerodynamic drag and pitching moment coefficients decrease with increasing the L/D ratio and angle of attack but the lift coefficient has increasing characteristics.