Multidisciplinary Analysis of a Lifting Body Launch Vehicle
Multidisciplinary Analysis of a Lifting Body Launch Vehicle
复制标题
升力体运载火箭的多学科分析
DOI:
10.2514/2.3880
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发表时间:
2002
期刊:
影响因子:
--
通讯作者:
R. Lepsch
中科院分区:
文献类型:
--
作者:
Paul V. Tartabini;K. Wurster;J. Korte;R. Lepsch
As part of phase 2 of the X-33 Program, NASA selected an integrated lifting body/aerospike engine configuration as the study vehicle for the conceptual analysis of a single-stage-to-orbit reusable launch vehicle. A team at NASA Langley Research Center participated in the screening and evaluation of a number of proposed vehicle configurations in the early phases of the conceptual design process. The performance analyses that supported these studies were conducted to assess the effect of the vehicle's lifting capability, linear aerospike engine, and metallic thermal protection system on the weight and performance of the vehicle. These performance studies were conducted in a multidisciplinary fashion that indirectly linked the trajectory optimization with weight estimation and aerothermal analysis tools. This approach was necessary to develop optimized ascent and entry trajectories that met all vehicle design constraints. Significant improvements in ascent performance were achieved when the vehicle flew a lifting trajectory and varied the engine mixture ratio during flight. Also, a considerable reduction in empty weight was possible by adjusting the total oxidizer-to-fuel and liftoff thrust-to-weight ratios. However, the optimal ascent flight profile had to be altered to ensure that the vehicle could be trimmed in pitch using only the flow diverting capability of the aerospike engine. Likewise, the optimal entry trajectory had to be tailored to meet thermal protection system heating rate and transition constraints while satisfying a crossrange requirement.