Hypersonic environment assessment of the CIRA FTB-X re-entry vehicle

This paper deals with design activities performed by CIRA in the frame of its flying test bed vehicle development, named FTB-X. The re-entry scenario with the corresponding loading environment for the proposed vehicle, devoted to research activities in re-entry technologies, is reported and analyzed. The hypersonic environment characteristics of FTB-X are investigated on a trajectory-based design approach by means of several engineering and CFD analyses. Being a phase A design, the air is modeled only as a perfect gas and the analyses were based on laminar flow conditions, while only a preliminary analysis of real gas and turbulence effects has been performed in time. The results show that the aerodynamics derived from engineering design approach is sufficiently accurate for preliminary analysis purpose; moreover, surface heat loads were computed on the vehicle configuration for thermal shield design scopes.