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Aerodynamic Heating Notes

Aerodynamic heating occurs when a fluid such as air flows over a solid body, transferring kinetic energy from the flow to thermal energy at the body's surface. The amount of heating increases with flow speed and atmospheric density and is a concern for vehicles traveling at supersonic or hypersonic speeds. To deal with intense aerodynamic heating, vehicles use high-temperature materials, insulation, heat sinks, ablative materials that erode and absorb heat, and liquid cooling of critical components like leading edges.

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354 views

Aerodynamic Heating Notes

Aerodynamic heating occurs when a fluid such as air flows over a solid body, transferring kinetic energy from the flow to thermal energy at the body's surface. The amount of heating increases with flow speed and atmospheric density and is a concern for vehicles traveling at supersonic or hypersonic speeds. To deal with intense aerodynamic heating, vehicles use high-temperature materials, insulation, heat sinks, ablative materials that erode and absorb heat, and liquid cooling of critical components like leading edges.

Uploaded by

dinaero
Copyright
© Attribution Non-Commercial (BY-NC)
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Aerodynamic heating

Aerodynamic heating is the heating of a solid body produced by the passage of fluid (such as
air) over a body such as a meteor, missile, or airplane. It is a form of forced convection in that
the flow field is created by forces beyond those associated with the thermal processes. The heat
transfer essentially occurs at vehicle surface where aerodynamic viscous forces ensures that the
flow is at zero speed relative to the body for a very small layer of molecules at the surface.
Because the flow has slowed to zero speed at this point a significant amount of its kinetic energy
from the free-field is converted to heat. In high speed flows, tremendous energy is represented by
the mean motion of the flow. As the flow is slowed to the zero speed, its temperature is
increased. But the gradient in the speed in the direction normal to the surface, allows to small
scale mass transport effects to dissipate the temperature in the outward direction and thus the
termperature at the surface is less than the stagnation temperature. The actual temperature is
referred to as the recovery temperature. These viscous dissipative effects to neighboring sub-
layers make the boundary layer slow down a non-isentropic process. Heat then conducts into the
surface material from the higher temperature air. The result is an increase in the temperature of
the material and a loss of energy from the flow. The forced convection ensures that other
material replenishes the gases that have cooled to continue the process. The stagnation and the
recovery temperature of a flow increases with the speed of the flow and are greater at high
speeds. The total thermal loading of the structure is a function of both the recovery temperature
and the mass flow rate of the flow. Aerodynamic heating is greatest at high speed and in the
lower atmosphere where the density is greater. In addition to the convective process described
above, there is also radiative heat transfer from the flow to the body and vice versa with the net
direction set by the relative temperature of each.

Aerodynamic heating increases with the speed of the vehicle and is continuous from zero speed.
It produces much less heating at subsonic speeds but becomes more important at supersonic
speeds. At these speeds it can induce temperatures that begin to weaken the materials that
compose the object. The heating effects are greatest at leading edges. Aerodynamic heating is
dealt with by the use of high temperature alloys for metals, the addition of insulation of the
exterior of the vehicle, or the use of ablative material.

Aircraft

Aerodynamic heating is a concern for supersonic and hypersonic aircraft. The Concorde dealt
with the increased heat loads at its leading edges by the use of high temperature materials and the
design of heat sinks into the aircraft structure at the leading edges. Higher speed aircraft such as
the SR-71 deal with the issue by the use of insulating material and material selection on the
exterior of the vehicles. Some designs for hypersonic missiles would employ liquid cooling of
the leading edges (usually the fuel en route to the engine).

Reentry Vehicles

Aerodynamic heating is topic of great concern in atmospheric reentry. The heating induced by
the very high speeds of reentry of greater than Mach 20 is sufficient to destroy the structure of
the vehicle. The early space capsules such as Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo were given blunt
shapes to produce a stand-off bow shock. As a result most of the heat is dissipated to surrounding
air. Additionally, these vehicles had ablative material that sublimates into a gas at high
temperature. The act of sublimation absorbs the thermal energy from the aerodynamic heating
and erodes the material away. The Space Shuttle uses an insulating tile on its lower surface to
absorb and radiate heat while preventing conduction to the aluminum airframe.

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