Design of spiked hemispherical body in hypersonic flow

A spike attached to a blunt body influence aerodynamic drag and changes its flow field in hypersonic flow. In other words, spiked hemispherical design minimize the drag and ensures longer ranges and more cost-effective flights. It is, therefore, a potential candidate for drag reduction of a future high-speed vehicle. The pressure on the blunt body can be substantially reduced due to forward facing spike because system of oblique shocks are produced instead of normal shock wave. The effect of the spike length, aerodisk diameter and spike width contribute in the reduction of the drag is numerically studied at Mach 6. Hypersonic flow around the hemispherical blunt cone and hemispherical spiked cone is simulated and validate the results with the experimental wind tunnel testing.