R. Ramesh et al., On the aerodynamic characteristics of thin slab delta wings at hypersonic speeds - part 2: effect of wing geometry, AERONAUT J, 104(1042), 2000, pp. 597-614
We report our findings on the aerodynamic characteristics of thin slab delt
a wings at hypersonic speeds. We have tested wings with three sweeps (76 de
grees ,70 degrees and 65 degrees) and four t/c ratios (0.04, 0.053, 0.06g a
nd 0.10) usings a special thin three-component balance. To date, the wing w
ith t/c of 0.040 is the thinnest wing ever tested without lee-side body at
any hypersonic Mach number. The study was carried out at Mach number of 8.2
, Reynolds number of 2.13 x 10(6) and incidence of -4 degrees to 12 degrees
. In general, for any given tie ratio, the increase in sweep decreased the
C-N whereas increased C-M and C-A. A possible explanation, for the effect o
f sweep, is given using the pressure data available in the literature. We a
lso observed that for the sweeps considered, the t/c does not have anp effe
ct on CN and CL but increasing t/c increased C-M and C-A, reduced (L/D)(max
) and moved the X-cp upstream. Blunt slab delta wings are shown to possess
a unique property, wherein the C-D increases with increase in sweep at high
er sweep angles. This property also reflects in the (L/D) characteristics.
Furthermore, the slab delta wings does not exhibit the classical C-L alpha
behaviour of sharp delta wings given in the literature. An empirical correl
ation has been developed to correlate C-A0 over a wide range of Mach number
, t/c and sweep. Linearised theory has been shown to be useful in predictin
g the (L/D)(max) at Mach numbers as high as 20, for a wide range of t/c and
sweep back angle.