STUDY ON SOLID ROCKET BASED WAVE-RIDER CONCEPT WITH SKIPPING TRAJECTORY

This paper puts forward a solid rocket based wave-rider (SRBWR) concept as a transitional form of future-generation scramjet based hypersonic vehicles and a practical hypersonic cruise test platform to accelerate the development of hypersonic technologies. To valuate the feasibility of SRBWR concept, the aerodynamic character of wave-rider, SRBWR concept arrangement, centroidal variation and its typical skipping trajectory have been studied. The lifting-body wave-rider configuration was constructed from stream surfaces generated by means of supersonic flows past a basic circular cone. CFD method was used to study its aerodynamic character and gain aerodynamic data at Mach numbers 4-8 for skipping trajectory design. Wind tunnel test at 4 Ma was conducted to value the accuracy of CFD prediction at the wind tunnel FD-06 in China Academy of Aerospace Astronautics (CAAA). The results of aerodynamic study show that the maximum L/D of the designed waverider configuration can exceed 4 at Mach numbers 4-8, which makes it fit for sliding in a wide rage of hypersonic speed regime. To minimize the centroidal variation during flight, the cruise solid rocket motor (SRM) is separated into multi small modules, which get easier to suit the long and narrow body of SRBWR. Small SRM modules also easily use long-tail type nozzle to adjust centroid and make arrangement more flexible. Designed cases show that the maximum centroidal coefficient variation for 4-modules arrangement is almost half less than the 1-module arrangement. In the skipping trajectory study, the performance and capacity of the designed SRBWR with two-pulse SRM were validated at last. The distance of single un-powered sliding flight for the designed SRBWR can reach 600-670km, when its speed decreases from 8 Ma to 5 Ma. The final flight range can exceed 2000km. Through analysis and demonstration of the designed SRBWR, the SRBWR concept is proved feasible and practical preliminarily.