Aerothermal Loads Evaluation on Protrusion of Vega Launch Vehicle

Paper number

IAC-08.C4.2.4

Author

Mr. Fabio Paglia, Italy

Coauthor

Dr. Marino Fragnito, Italy

Coauthor

Mr. Emanuele Lambiase, Italy

Coauthor

Mr. Attilio Cretella, AVIO S.p.A., Italy

Coauthor

Mr. Valerio Ferrara, Italy

Year

2008

Abstract

VEGA is the new  European 4 stages launch vehicle dedicated to the scientific/commercial market of small payloads (300 ÷ 1500 kg) into Low Earth Orbits, with inclinations ranging from 5.2° up to Sun Synchronous Orbits and with altitude ranging from 300 to 1500 km.
	This paper presents a part of the activities performed by AVIO S.p.A., aimed to the estimation of the aero-thermal loads on the launch vehicle, paying special attention to the influence of the protrusions.
	As it is well known, protrusions produce on the VEGA external surface a local overheating with respect to a smooth configuration, that is why numerical simulation around the complete configuration has been performed. 
	Numerical simulations have been accomplished by means of the numerical commercial tool Fluent adopting the standard turbulent model k-?. Computational domain has been largely widened in order to avoid or reduce numerical perturbations coming from boundary conditions. A mesh sensitivity analysis has been also conducted to demonstrate the independence of the numerical solution from the computational grid; three different meshes have been considered and the heat flux value on the protrusion has been chosen as comparison criteria.
Several simulations have been performed at different free stream conditions relative to the applicable trajectory for VEGA in order to reproduce the heat fluxes evolution during the flight.
The heat fluxes calculated by the mean of CFD analysis have been compared with a semi-empirical formulation, derived from the reference enthalpy extension of incompressible results for the Stanton number. The aero-thermal variables at the edge of the boundary layer, required as input for the semi-empirical formulation, have been evaluated performing a numerical simulation around the clean configuration of the LV.

Abstract document

IAC-08.C4.2.4.pdf

Manuscript document

IAC-08.C4.2.4.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).

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