Abstract
An inflatable re-entry vehicle is a candidate for future re-entry systems. Owing to the large area and configuration of the vehicle, it can afford a few advantages during the re-entry, descent, and landing approach, such as a decrease of aerodynamic heating and soft landing without requiring a parachute system. To investigate aerodynamic characteristics of inflatable reentry vehicle at low-Mach-number flight, wind tunnel tests were performed in JAXA Low-Speed-Wind tunnel. In this research, we investigated aerodynamic characteristics of 2 types of inflatable reentry vehicle, SMAAC and TITANS, at a low-Mach-number by using numerical simulation. Through the flow field simulation, it was indicated that the computed result of drag coefficient shows reasonable agreement with the experimental one. In the case of TITANS, the computed results showed good agreements compared with experimental results though it was confirmed that a blockage effect was observed.
