ISSN (Online): 2319-8753

ISSN(Print) : 2347 - 6710

International Journal of Innovative Research in Science, Engineering and Technology

An ISO 3297: 2007 Certified Organization Volume 6, Special Issue 7, April 2017

5th National Conference on Trends in Automotive Parts Systems and Applications (TAPSA-2017)

30th & 31st March 2017

Organized by
Sri Krishna College of Engineering & Technology, Kuniamuthur, Coimbatore-641008, Tamilnadu, India

Computational Study on Role of Pimples in

Ballistic Entry of Space Vehicles
S.Bala subramanian*1, M. Vijay2, D. Prakash3and Dr M. Shanmugaraja4
Final Year UG Student, Department of Aeronautical Engineering, Park College of Technology,
Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India1
Final Year UG Student, Department of Aeronautical Engineering, Park College of Technology,
Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India2
Assistant Professor, Department of Aeronautical Engineering, Park College of Technology,
Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India3
Professor &Head, Department of Automobile Engineering, SNS College of Technology,
Coimbatore, Tamil Nadu, India4

Abstract: This paper presents the study of hypersonic fluid flow over the blunt nosed body and the effectiveness of
pimples in order to alleviate the aerodynamic heating of space vehicle during ballistic entry. Comparative study has
been carried on conventional blunt nosed body and pimpled blunt nosed body to evaluate the alleviating degree of
aerodynamic heating. From the preceding study, it has been observed that the pimpled blunt nosed body significantly
alleviates the aerodynamic heating, in the sense of reducing the curvature of shock wave. Numerical Simulation using
Ansys-Fluent is carried out to evaluate effectiveness of Pimple by varying its geometrical definition, which provides
lots of insight of Shockwave and its thermal interaction with the solid body. Structural Analysis is carried out to study
the thermal distribution across the solid body and thermal stress concentration due to aerodynamic heating. System
Coupling Technique is used to study the interaction of fluid flow over the solid body and thermal behaviour of Solid
body simultaneously. Numerically, it has been observed that the Pimpled Blunt nosed body plays an extensive role in
alleviation of aerodynamic heating relative to its conventional blunt nosed body.

Keywords: Aerodynamic heating, Shockwave, Blunt Nosed Body, Numerical Simulation, System Coupling

І.INTRODUCTION

Hypersonic flight has revolutionized both commercial as well as military activity. The economic implications
of affordable high-speed flight become apparent when one recognizes that hypersonic flight is an essential element at
some point in the trajectory of all space vehicles during ascent, and, if applicable, descent as well [1]. Future
hypersonic vehicles may also facilitate rapid transport between distant points on the earth at a fraction of the time it
currently takes [15]. Aerothermodynamics refers to the distribution of pressure, forces, moments, and heating on the
vehicle. At high velocities and enthalpies, these are very large, and their minimization requires compromise between
conflicting considerations [6]. The nose of the vehicle plays a very important role in the design of hypersonic vehicles.
For the blunt body, the shock is curved and stands off (i.e., is detached) from the body – the region between the shock
and the surface is termed a shock layer [2]. The shock layer is thus a highly vortical region and is often termed an
entropy layer. For the sharp-nosed configuration, the shock is weaker and is attached to the surface at its tip [10]. It
should be noted that even for a sharp-nosed body, there is always some bluntness at the leading edge, but the radius of
curvature can be very small. For sharp-nosed objects, the angle between the shock and the surface becomes very small
at hypersonic speeds. Drag is also an important consideration for vehicle design. Blunt noses, while reducing peak

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 ISSN (Online): 2319-8753
ISSN(Print) : 2347 - 6710

International Journal of Innovative Research in Science, Engineering and Technology

An ISO 3297: 2007 Certified Organization Volume 6, Special Issue 7, April 2017

5th National Conference on Trends in Automotive Parts Systems and Applications (TAPSA-2017)

30th & 31st March 2017

Organized by
Sri Krishna College of Engineering & Technology, Kuniamuthur, Coimbatore-641008, Tamilnadu, India
heating, increase drag on the body [5]. This is fortuitous for vehicles such (as those of below figure 1), which
essentially perform braking missions by presenting flat surfaces to the incoming flow [4]. For ballistic trajectories,
however, range is an important consideration and drag exerted in the lower atmosphere must be reduced. These
vehicles therefore tend to be relatively slender, with slightly blunted noses that experience severe heating but only for
short times [7]. For such vehicles, turbulent skin friction can then be a major determinant of drag, and asymmetric
laminar–turbulent transition locations can yield unanticipated moments. Finally, advances in hypersonic theory have
been constrained by the difficulty in experimentation and simulation, although active research is lifting many of these
limitations [9]. Flight tests are expensive and difficult to monitor while ground tests cannot simultaneously match all
conditions such as Mach and Reynolds numbers as well as enthalpies for larger vehicles [3]. Nevertheless,
Computational Fluid Dynamics (Numerical Simulation) has a provision to simulate the flight test at required boundary
conditions [8].

Fig 1: Bow shock wave formation in blunt nose body and sharp nose body at hypersonic condition

Its primary scope is to choose the optimum design of Blunt nosed body, in order to alleviate the aerodynamic
heating due to viscous effects, with the aid of pimples. Comparative study has been carried out numerically on
conventional Blunt nosed body and Pimpled Blunt nosed Body. And the effectiveness is evaluated against each other
by observing the scattering of thermal energy (Temperature) over the surface of Blunt body. If the Pimpled Blunt
Nosed body depreciates the scattering of thermal energy, geometrical definition is varied in such a way of increasing
its radius.

II. GEOMETRICAL CONFIGURATIONS

The CAD model is developed for both Blunt Nosed Body and Pimpled blunt nosed body in CATIA V5
software (as shown in figure 2&3).

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 ISSN (Online): 2319-8753
ISSN(Print) : 2347 - 6710

International Journal of Innovative Research in Science, Engineering and Technology

An ISO 3297: 2007 Certified Organization Volume 6, Special Issue 7, April 2017

5th National Conference on Trends in Automotive Parts Systems and Applications (TAPSA-2017)

30th & 31st March 2017

Organized by
Sri Krishna College of Engineering & Technology, Kuniamuthur, Coimbatore-641008, Tamilnadu, India

Fig 2: Existing Parabola nose cone model Fig 3: Proposed Pimpled parabola nose cone model

Surface Mesh
Skewness Quality of both cases is chosen to 0.4 and the Mesh count of Conventional & Pimpled Blunt Nosed
Body about 81,220 and 92,645 respectively (as shown in figure 4&5).

Fig 4: surface mesh on Existing nose cone Fig 5: surface mesh on pimpled nose cone

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 ISSN (Online): 2319-8753
ISSN(Print) : 2347 - 6710

International Journal of Innovative Research in Science, Engineering and Technology

An ISO 3297: 2007 Certified Organization Volume 6, Special Issue 7, April 2017

5th National Conference on Trends in Automotive Parts Systems and Applications (TAPSA-2017)

30th & 31st March 2017

Organized by
Sri Krishna College of Engineering & Technology, Kuniamuthur, Coimbatore-641008, Tamilnadu, India
III. DISCUSSION ON EFFECTIVENESS OF PIMPLED & CONVENTIONAL BLUNT BOBY
Contour of Mach number:

Fig 6: Simulation of the Mach number over the parabolic nose cone without and with pimple surface at Mach no. 5

(From the above figure 6), it is evident that the slope of Bow Shock (Curvature) in Pimpled Blunt nosed Body
is significantly greater than the Conventional one due to increase in effective frontal area. Though, the Shockwave can
be considered as non-rotating compressor, which transfers the kinetic energy of incoming fluid flow to Internal energy
of Fluid by means of increasing the Temperature and Pressure at the downstream of shockwave with significant
Pressure Loss and Thermal Dissipation. Those Thermal Dissipation is the only entity, which is triggered by viscous
effects to exchange the thermal energy between the fluid and solid surface that are exposed to fluid. Degree of Thermal
Dissipation purely depends on the slope of Shockwave, for example, Thermal Dissipation would be greater in Normal
Shockwave than in Oblique Shockwave. From the preceding discussions, it is clear that Thermal Dissipation i.e.,
transfer of thermal energy from the Fluid to Solid surface is greater in Conventional Blunt Body than in Pimpled Blunt
Nosed Body.

IV. DISCUSSION ON EFFECTIVENESS OF PIMPLE CONFIGURATION – PIMPLED

BLUNT NOSED BODY
From the preceding conclusion, Entropy gradient (region form the Solid Surface to shockwave), where the fluid
molecules tends to share their thermal – kinetic energy with the adjacent fluid and solid molecules, Pimples present
over the nose of the body retards the exchange of energies with the aid of consecutive infinite number of compression
and expansion waves. But, the Pimple geometrical definition (shape) plays a vital role in distracting the vortical
structures present within the thin shockwave that results in destructing the geometrical structure of Bow Shockwave.
Thus, Numerical Study can be carried out on different pimple geometrical configuration in order to determine the
optimum Pimple geometry. Three different radius of Pimple are chosen to study numerically and the radius are 10 mm,
15 mm & 20 mm.

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 ISSN (Online): 2319-8753
ISSN(Print) : 2347 - 6710

International Journal of Innovative Research in Science, Engineering and Technology

An ISO 3297: 2007 Certified Organization Volume 6, Special Issue 7, April 2017

5th National Conference on Trends in Automotive Parts Systems and Applications (TAPSA-2017)

30th & 31st March 2017

Organized by
Sri Krishna College of Engineering & Technology, Kuniamuthur, Coimbatore-641008, Tamilnadu, India
Contour of Mach number:

Fig 7: Simulation of the Mach number over the parabolic nose cone without and with pimple (R 10, R15, R20 mm) surface at Mach no. 5

From the above contours of Mach number, it is observed that the Mach number at the nose tip immediate
downstream of shockwave goes on decreasing as the radius of pimples increases. Physically, it dictates the fact that
radius of Pimples has a profound effect on destructing the geometrical structure of Bow Shockwave in the sense of
increasing the slope of shockwave i.e., to reduce the curvature of shockwave at the nose tip by resembling or making
the bow shockwave to behave as Normal Shockwave at nose tip. As curvature of bow shockwave decreases, Pressure
loss across the shockwave increases at the nose tip, generally thereby reducing the exchange of thermal energy of fluid
molecules with the solid surface. Pressure loss across the shockwave increases as the radius increases (as shown in
figure 7). Because, the intensity of consecutive generation of infinite number of compression waves (which tries to
suppress the energy of fluid) and expansion waves (which tries to recover the energy of fluid) over the pimples
increases as the radius increases.
Contour of Pressure:

Fig 8: Simulation of the Pressure distribution over the parabolic nose cone without and with pimple (R10, R15, R20 mm) surface at Mach no. 5

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 ISSN (Online): 2319-8753
ISSN(Print) : 2347 - 6710

International Journal of Innovative Research in Science, Engineering and Technology

An ISO 3297: 2007 Certified Organization Volume 6, Special Issue 7, April 2017

5th National Conference on Trends in Automotive Parts Systems and Applications (TAPSA-2017)

30th & 31st March 2017

Organized by
Sri Krishna College of Engineering & Technology, Kuniamuthur, Coimbatore-641008, Tamilnadu, India
Table 1: Simulation analysis pressure distribution results of pimpled nose cone (R10, R15, R20 mm) at Mach no 5

Nose Cone Pimple Radius Pressure Distribution

Nose Cone Tip Another Places

R10 mm 1.13x106 Pa 3.75x105 Pa

R15 mm 1.19x106 Pa 4.22x105 Pa

R20 mm 1.20x106 Pa 4.87x105 Pa

Pressure Contour in Hypersonic Flow is used to visualize the location of both Compression and Expansion
Shockwaves and its Geometrical Orientation (as shown in figure 8). From the above Contours, it could be concluded
that the intensity of Consecutive generation of both Compression and Expansion wave’s increases as the radius of
pimple increases, which favors us in the sense of reducing the fluid temperature at the proximity of wall, but it tends to
increase the nose temperature.
From the Prefect gas law, Pressure is directly proportional to Temperature. Infinite number of Expansion
Waves present around the annulus of Pimpled Blunt Nosed Body depreciates the exchange of thermal energy from the
fluid molecules to solid molecules. But, Temperature at the nose tip, immediate downstream of Shockwave increase at
the rate of effective radius of Solid body, which appreciates the sharing of thermal energy of fluid to solid surface (as
shown in Table 1).

Contour of Temperature:

Fig 9: Simulation of the temperature distribution over the parabolic nose cone without and with pimple (R10, R15, R20 mm) surface at Mach no. 5

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 ISSN (Online): 2319-8753
ISSN(Print) : 2347 - 6710

International Journal of Innovative Research in Science, Engineering and Technology

An ISO 3297: 2007 Certified Organization Volume 6, Special Issue 7, April 2017

5th National Conference on Trends in Automotive Parts Systems and Applications (TAPSA-2017)

30th & 31st March 2017

Organized by
Sri Krishna College of Engineering & Technology, Kuniamuthur, Coimbatore-641008, Tamilnadu, India
Table 2: Simulation analysis Temperature distribution results of pimpled nose cone (R10, R15, R20 mm) at Mach no 5

Nose Cone Pimple Radius Temperature Distribution

Nose Cone Tip Another Places

R10 mm 765.57 K 690.25 K

R15 mm 770.65 K 733.14 K

R20 mm 787.60 K 766.50 K

The above Contours of Temperature of three different radius of Pimples dictates the fact that, despite the Pimples has
the tendency to reduce the aerodynamics heating of Ballistic Entry vehicles by diffusing the shockwaves. (as shown in
figure 9) i.e., in aerodynamic point of view, but Pimples present over the nose of Space body would be subjected to
severe tortuous impact of hypersonic fluid flow, thermodynamically it fails to dissociate the heat energy at the nose tip.
Another noteworthy fact is that, Coefficient of drag increases as the radius of pimple increases, indeed, the Pimpled
Blunt Nosed body tends to behave or resemble like Blunt body with large frontal area, as the radius of pimple increases
(as shown in Table 2).

Shear Stress Distribution:

Fig 10: Simulation of the Shear Stress distribution over the parabolic nose cone without and with pimple (R10, R15, R20 mm) surface at Mach no. 5

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 ISSN (Online): 2319-8753
ISSN(Print) : 2347 - 6710

International Journal of Innovative Research in Science, Engineering and Technology

An ISO 3297: 2007 Certified Organization Volume 6, Special Issue 7, April 2017

5th National Conference on Trends in Automotive Parts Systems and Applications (TAPSA-2017)

30th & 31st March 2017

Organized by
Sri Krishna College of Engineering & Technology, Kuniamuthur, Coimbatore-641008, Tamilnadu, India
Table 3: Simulation analysis shear stress distribution results of pimpled nose cone (R10, R15, R20 mm) at Mach no 5

Nose Cone Pimple Radius Shear Stress Distribution

Nose Cone Tip Another Places

8 8
R10 mm
3.2426x10 Pa 1.6798x10 Pa
8 7
R15 mm
3.5051x10 Pa 8.6793x10 Pa
8 7
R20 mm
3.7063x10 Pa 8.8681x10 Pa

Shear Stress distribution dictates the region which is vulnerable to aerodynamic heating. It has been observed
that the Shear Stress in Pimple of Pimpled R10 Blunt Body (3.2 e8 Pa) is lesser than in Pimpled R15 Blunt Body (9.8
e7 Pa) (as shown in Table 3). so, it could be concluded that, as the radius of Pimple increases, pimples tends to develop
uniform internal reactive stress, which results in less discontinuous variation of thermal shear stress across the pimple.
Hence, as the radius increases, Pimples become less vulnerable to aerodynamic heating, despite having very high
temperature at the nose tip.
All the above contour of Shear Stress Distribution is just to illustrate the effectiveness of Pimpled Blunt Nosed
Body over the Conventional Blunt Body, with the assumption, that the inner skin of Space vehicle is free from shear
due to aerodynamic heating (as shown in figure 10).

V. CONCLUSION

Numerical Approach is used to appraise the performance of both Conventional Blunt Nosed Body and
Pimpled Blunt Nosed Body. Conversion of Kinetic Energy of Fluid to Thermal Energy is found to be greater in
Conventional Blunt nosed Body than the Pimpled Blunt Nosed Body. Thus, the Pimples has the ability to delay or to
alleviate the thermal interaction between the solid and fluid molecules, by stretching the shockwave in normal
direction, rather than sharing the energy of fluid to other molecules relative to its Conventional Blunt Nosed Body.
Though the Pimples reduces the aerodynamic heating of Space body during Ballistic during, it is more vulnerable to
thermal shear stress than the conventional one.
As the radius of Pimples increases intensity of Consecutive generation of both Compression and Expansion
wave’s increases, which favors us in the sense of reducing the fluid temperature at the proximity of wall, but it tends to
increase the temperature of nose tip. Conversion of Kinetic Energy of Fluid to Thermal Energy at nose tip is found to
be greater as the radius of pimples increases, hence, thermodynamically , larger pimple radii fails to dissociate the heat
energy at the nose . Hence, possible smaller radius of pimple has to be chosen to alleviate the temperature of nose tip.
As the radius of Pimple increases, pimples tends to develop uniform internal reactive stress, which results in
less discontinuous variation of thermal shear stress across the pimple. Hence, as the radius increases, Pimples become
less vulnerable to aerodynamic heating, despite having very high temperature at the nose tip.
Smaller pimple radius has to be chosen to alleviate the temperature at nose tip, whereas larger pimple radius
has to be chosen to make the pimple less vulnerable to thermal shear stress. So, the designer has to trade-off between
these two conflicting criteria.

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 ISSN (Online): 2319-8753
ISSN(Print) : 2347 - 6710

International Journal of Innovative Research in Science, Engineering and Technology

An ISO 3297: 2007 Certified Organization Volume 6, Special Issue 7, April 2017

5th National Conference on Trends in Automotive Parts Systems and Applications (TAPSA-2017)

30th & 31st March 2017

Organized by
Sri Krishna College of Engineering & Technology, Kuniamuthur, Coimbatore-641008, Tamilnadu, India
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