Aerodynamic characteristics of breathing blunt nose configuration at hypersonic speeds

Abstract

Breathing blunt nose technique is one of the promising methods for reducing the drag of blunt-nosed body at hypersonic speeds. The air, traversed by the bow shock positioned ahead of the nose, at the stagnation region is allowed to enter through a hole at the blunt-nose and ejected at the rear part (base region) of the body. This manipulation reduces the positive pressure over the stagnation regions of the nose and increases the pressure at the base, resulting in reduced suction at the base. The simultaneous manifestation of reducing the compression at the nose and suction at the base regions results in reduction of the total drag. The drag reduction caused by the breathing blunt nose technique has been measured in a Mach 7 tunnel. Also, the drag and flow field around the blunt-nosed body, with and without breathing hole, has been computed. The aerodynamic characteristics of the breathing blunt nose model obtained experimentally are compared with the CFD results. It is found that the breathing results in 5% reduction in drag. The lift coefficient also comes down for the model with breathing nose. But the lift-to-drag ratio is found to be the same for both the cases; the blunt-nosed body with and without nose-hole.