Bluntness and Viscous-Interaction Effects on Slender Bodies at Hypersonic Speeds

C. Forbes Dewey

ResearchPublished 1964

A study of aerodynamic design and performance of slender vehicles operating in high-altitude, high-velocity environments. The Memorandum: (1) briefly describes pertinent regimes of flight, and advances arguments to show that at high altitudes the leading-edge thickness is not dictated by convective and radiative heat-transfer rates; (2) describes flight regimes where leading-edge bluntness and hypersonic viscous interaction are important, and summarizes the theoretical approaches to these two limiting cases; (3) outlines a method of computing skin friction, heat transfer, and surface pressure in the viscous-interaction regime; (4) presents sample calculations which indicate that viscous interaction may significantly increase the lift and drag of slender vehicles.

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Dewey, C. Forbes, Bluntness and Viscous-Interaction Effects on Slender Bodies at Hypersonic Speeds. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 1964. https://www.rand.org/pubs/research_memoranda/RM3832.html.
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