Sub-Transonic and Supersonic STRATOFLY MR3 Aerodatabase develompment by means of CFD Simulations

Interest in hypersonic airplane is constantly growing, both in civil applications and in military one. In this scenario, commercial air transport is very attracted by this emerging technology, since time to destination needs to be reduced with a number of passengers predicted to be higher than at present. In this context, the STRATOFLY project arose in a European landscape with the aim to study the feasibility of high-speed passenger stratospheric flight by means of futuristic airplane concept that shall be able to perform cruise at 30 km of altitude at Mach 8 flight speed and a reference Bruxelles-Sidney flight executed in less than 3 hours. The ambition is to reach a TRL6 by 2035. This thesis work focuses on aerodynamic characterization of the MR3 airplane concept by means of numerical approach (CFD). Aerodynamic coefficients are obtained by adding to the baseline clean configuration the effect of control surfaces deflections. This latter obtained through linear build-up approach of different portions of the aircraft, simulated independently from take-off stage (Mach 0.3) to cruise condition (Mach 8 at an altitude of about 30 Km). Due to wide flow regimes experimented during simulated flight path and massive geometry of aircraft, simplified flow field equations are employed (Euler equations). Firstly, wing, flap and aileron are considered together. Than standalone canard and finally body-flap and rudder. The purpose of this work is to obtain in a rapid way (project phase A like in preliminary analysis) the aerodynamic database of the Stratofly concept in the whole flow regimes in witch airplane operates, in order to give input to flight mechanics analysis for trajectory simulations, and in general to have a better comprehension of the stability characteristics.