Control-Surface Efficiency and Heating

For atmospheric lifting entries, the knowledge of the control surface efficiency in the chemical reactive environment is a critical issue. It requires the use of robust and accurate numerical methods embedded in multidisciplinary environments, together with dedicated experiments for physical modeling assessment.

Numerical reconstruction of the surface pressure distribution  measured in the high enthalpy shock-tunnel Göttingen (HEG) for the ESA FLPP-IXV vehicle

Model in the test section of the facility

Computed pressure field around the FLPP-IXV vehicle View of the flow field in the rear part showing a shock-shock interaction in front of the flaps

Surface temperature on a generic flap model immersed in a hypersonic flow field Results using coupled fluid-structure simulation (left) and CFD (right)