CFD study of the HIFiRE-5 flight experiment

Boundary layer transition on the HIFiRE 5 flight vehicle was studied using Parabolized Stability Equation (PSE) analysis. Four trajectory points were selected to cover the range of the flight where transition is expected to occur on the vehicle. In order to calculate the PSE, a mean flow solution was generated using a finite-volume Navier-Stokes solver. The stability analysis was then conducted on the two symmetry planes of the vehicle. It was found that the leading edge planes are expected to follow second mode instability growth. The centerline cases experienced a much more complicated growth that was mainly driven by second mode, but also showed higher growth modes. In particular for the lowest altitude case, the higher modes showed to contribute to the maximum N factor growth. This was caused by the complex boundary layer profile that was induced by a pair of vortices along the centerline of the vehicle.