Aerodynamic Characteristics of Telescopic Aerospikes with Multiple-Row-Disk

This paper reports experimental studies on telescopic aerospikes with multiple disks. The telescopic aerospike is useful as an aerodynamic control device; however, changing its length causes a buzz phenomenon, which many researchers have reported. The occurrence of buzzing might be critical to the vehicle because it brings about severe pressure oscillations on the surface. Disks on the shaft produce stable recirculation regions by dividing the single separation flow into several conical cavity flows. The telescopic aerospikes with stabilizer disks are useful without any length constraints. Aerodynamic characteristics of the telescopic aerospikes were investigated through a series of wind tunnel tests. Transition of recirculation/reattachment flow modes of a plain spike causes a large change in the drag coefficient. Because of this hysteresis phenomenon and the buzzing, the plain spike is unsuitable for fine aerodynamic control devices. Adding stabilizer disks is effective for the improved control of aerospikes.