Aerothermal Design and Analysis of Hypersonic and Spacecraft
The aerothermodynamic analysis and design activities carried out at our Institute are mainly concerned with research for current and future space transport vehicles. The Institute has been involved in major German and international space programs for almost three decades. We contributed to the flight instrumentation for the ExoMars 2016 mission and are involved with the instrumentation for NASA’s Dragonfly mission to Titan. Our long-term goal is the virtual design of space vehicles and their ground and flight systems, as well as the ground and flight qualification of these. Building on DLR’s successful flight experiments SHEFEX I and II, the Institute has now assumed responsibility for the aerodynamic design and flight instrumentation of other international flight experiments. We conduct research in space vehicle and launcher aerodynamics. This work includes the investigation of launch vehicle aerodynamics, nozzle flows and their interaction with base flows, analysis of liquid-fueled rockets, thrust chamber and tank flows, hybrid and solid rocket motors, and chemical and electric thrusters for attitude and orbit control. The Institute has several test benches and arc-heated systems for performing qualification testing. Our research work on hypersonics and space vehicle design has led to numerous collaborations, including with German universities, the US Air Force, Stanford University, the California Institute of Technology, the University of Queensland in Australia, JAXA in Japan and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.
