Pulsating flow investigation for spiked blunt-nose body in hypersonic flow and its control

An aerospike, as a technique for drag reduction and heat transfer in high-speed flows, is associated with instabilities. To understand the pulsating flow behavior in front of forward facing spiked blunt nose, numerical investigation has been carried out using axisymmetric Navier-Stokes laminar flow solver at hypersonic Mach number 6.0. Initially flat, hemisphere and conical tip spiked blunt nose with flat-face cylindrical afterbody have been simulated for spike length-to-afterbody diameter ratio (L/D) of 2.0, with observing slight differences in the nature of pulsation. Furthermore, the pulsating flow field has been manipulated by introducing the corner radius (r) at the afterbody with variation of 0.1D and 0.2D. It is found that 0.2D corner radius can completely control the pulsation unsteadiness in front of different tip spiked blunt noses of L/D = 2.0.