Abstract
In the past, hypersonic aircraft and space launch vehicle designs were dependent on empirical methods that were developed and verified using wind tunnel testing. This process was time consuming and extremely expensive. The vehicle designers were forced to look for improved ways to assess the design because they needed to cut the design costs. This led to the development of high-speed aerodynamic analysis codes. These codes cut the design costs by reducing the number of wind tunnel tests that were required (and eliminating the associated time and expense). Currently, there are many different aerodynamic analysis codes, of different fidelities, available for use in the design process. One of these codes is the Supersonic/Hypersonic Arbitrary Body Program (S/HABP). Versions of S/HABP are implemented with varying pre and post-processing applications. Two of the common ones are the Aerodynamic Preliminary Analysis System (APAS) and Viscous Effects on Complex Configurations (VECC). Both APAS and VECC are stand-alone specialized codes that are not well integrated into the design process. This paper documents an application that was developed to improve the process of generating an aerodynamic analysis mesh for S/HABP from the geometric modeling activities that are needed for the overall vehicle design process.
