The Epsilon Launch Vehicle, scheduled to be launched in 2013, is currently under the development by JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency). In this study, aerodynamic characteristics of the Epsilon Launch Vehicle are investigated by conducting both wind tunnel tests and numerical analyses at Mach 0.7. In order to examine accuracy of the measured drag, we probed the cavity pressure in addition to the base pressure, in contrast to our earlier work for Mach 1.5. The measured data indicated that the cavity pressure can be substituted by the base pressure or the static pressure within 3% error, which accounts for 1% error in the fore drag estimation. Then, the fore drag, calculated based on the static pressure, was used for CFD validation. Our CFD results of attack angles of 0 and 5 degrees showed fair agreement with the wind tunnel results, including the surface flow pattern, the fore drag and the normal force. Finally, aerodynamic characteristics of Epsilon Launch Vehicle at Mach 0.7 are extracted from the CFD results: 1) contribution to total forces was clarified for each part (e.g., flanges and attitude control units), 2) the normal force profile at Mach 0.7 showed comparable peaks with the Mach 1.5 case, in spite of the smaller separation regions near protuberant parts, and 3) the Reynolds number effect turned out to be minor within the range of the wind-tunnel and flight conditions.
