Numerical Simulation of Aerospike-Transpiration Combined Cooling Structure for the Nose Cone of an Aircraft
WU Xiaorong1， DOU Yibing2， HE Fei1
1. Department of Thermal
Science and Energy Engineering，
University of Science and Technology of China，
Hefei
230026，
Anhui，
China； 2.
Shanghai Electro-Mechanical Engineering Institute， Shanghai 201109，
China
Abstract：Addressing the poor thermal protection performance of transpiration cooling at the stagnation point of aircraft nose cones, a novel aerospike-transpiration combined cooling structure was proposed in this paper. By leveraging the “wrapping” effect of the low-pressure recirculation zone induced by the aerospike, the transpiration cooling effectiveness near the stagnation region was enhanced, thus achieving integrated drag reduction and thermal protection for the entire nose cone structure. Installing an aerospike at the front end of the high-speed aircraft was an effective strategy for minimizing aerodynamic drag and protecting thermal transfer. However, the thermal protection capability of a solitary aerospike alone was inadequate to fulfill the thermal protection demands, thus necessitating the incorporation of supplementary cooling systems. Transpiration cooling was an efficient active thermal protection method with low coolant usage and high cooling efficiency, but the cooling effectiveness at the stagnation point was poor. In this paper, a coupled numerical method was established to compare the flow field structures and cooling characteristics of four nose cone configurations: a simple nose cone, a nose cone with aerospike, a nose cone with transpiration cooling, and a nose cone with aerospike-transpiration combined cooling. The results show that, under the same operating conditions, aerospike-transpiration combined cooling can improve cooling effectiveness at the stagnation point of simple transpiration cooling, reducing peak surface temperature by 91.68 K. Besides, the combined structure achieves a drag reduction rate of 39.75%. Furthermore, the study tested the impact of various factors, including aerospike length, diameter of the disk, and solid thermal conductivity, on the drag reduction and thermal protection effectiveness of the combined cooling structure.
吴晓蓉, 窦怡彬, 贺菲. 飞行器鼻锥激波针-发散复合冷却结构数值模拟[J]. 空天防御, 2025, 8(5): 75-82.
WU Xiaorong, DOU Yibing, HE Fei. Numerical Simulation of Aerospike-Transpiration Combined Cooling Structure for the Nose Cone of an Aircraft. Air & Space Defense, 2025, 8(5): 75-82.
