ABSTRACTThe analysis of the aerodynamic environment of the re-entry vehicle attaches great importance to the design of the novel drag reduction strategies, and the combinational spike and jet concept has shown promising application for the drag reduction in supersonic flows. In this paper, the drag force reduction mechanism induced by the combinational spike and lateral jet concept with the freestream Mach number being 5.9332 has been investigated numerically by means of the two-dimensional axisymmetric Navier-Stokes equations coupled with the shear stress transport (SST) k-ω turbulence model, and the effects of the lateral jet location and its number on the drag reduction of the blunt body have been evaluated. The obtained results show that the drag force of the blunt body can be reduced more profoundly when employing the dual lateral jets, and its maximum percentage is 38.81%, with the locations of the first and second lateral jets arranged suitably. The interaction between the leading shock wave and the first lateral jet has a great impact on the drag force reduction. The drag force reduction is more evident when the interaction is stronger. Due to the inclusion of the lateral jet, the pressure intensity at the reattachment point of the blunt body decreases sharply, as well as the temperature near the walls of the spike and the blunt body, and this implies that the multi-lateral jet is beneficial for the drag reduction.