Khlopkov Yuri Ivanovich, Zay Yar Myo Myint and Khlopkov Anton Yurievich
International Journal of Aeronautical and Space Sicences, vol. 14, no. 3, pp.215-221, 2013

Abstract : The basic quantitative tool for the study of hypersonic rarefied flows is the direct simulation Monte Carlo method (DSMC). The DSMC method requires a large amount of computer memory and performance and is unreasonably expensive at the first stage of spacecraft design and trajectory analysis. A possible solution to this problem is approximate engineering methods. However, the Monte Carlo method remains the most reliable approach to compare to the engineering methods that provide good results for the global aerodynamic coefficients of various geometry designs. This paper presents the calculation results of aerodynamic characteristics for spacecraft vehicles in free molecular, the transitional and continuum regimes using the local engineering method. Results and methods would be useful to calculate aerodynamics for new-generation hypersonic vehicle designs.

Keyword : hypersonic vehicles, aerodynamic, space technology, engineering methods, DSMC.