Supersonic Flow Field Characteristics of a Sharp Spiked Blunt Body Having Various Nose Cone Fairings

Experimental and computational investigations were conducted to examine the flow characteristics of a blunt body with a sharp spike attached to different nose cone fairings. This study was performed at the Mach number of 2 with Reynolds number of 3.5 × 106 based on the body’s base diameter (D = 15 mm). The axial forces acting on the body were measured both without the spike and with the spike, spike tip fixed at a specific fixed location with using of one-component strain gage balance. Additionally, the Schlieren flow visualization technique, which relies on density gradient, was utilized to capture Schlieren photos and analyze the flow field around the model for both configurations (with and without the spike) with varying L/D (length-to-diameter) ratios. Furthermore, a detailed discussion on the computed density gradient for the flow was undertaken. The results indicated that the shear layer angle (α) remained constant across all tested models. However, the body shock angle ( \(\Theta\) ) exhibited significant changes due to the shape of the blunt body. The impact of the nose cone fairing on the spike's flow (FTSS) arrangement appeared to be negligible. Overall, the drag experienced by the model remained relatively consistent regardless of the length or presence of body fairings.