Re-entry vehicle sonic boom issue: Modelling and calculation results in windy atmosphere based on the augmented Burgers equation

Recent development of the various type of re-entry vehicles for tourism and, in near future, for frequent commercial flights to space as well as coming second generation supersonic transport (SST) rise important issue of flight safety of these vehicles, including sonic boom exposure on ground structures, people and environment. During the space plane descend the sonic boom carpet may cover thousands of kilometers wide territories on the earth or ocean and may cause some discomfort or even danger for people. Proper modelling of shock waves propagation in the non-homogeneous windy atmosphere is important task that should be solved based on the fast calculation methods to provide data to the flight deck in real time, while descending. In this paper the sonic boom modelling is based on augmented Burgers equation. A generalization of this equation is made for the case of a weakly inhomogeneous moving viscous heat-conducting medium with the conservation equations of the second order of approximation. The numerical method of sonic boom propagation and attenuation in real atmosphere and respective computer code “vBoom” have been developed and validated. The calculation data of sonic boom propagation and primary and secondary sonic boom exposure areas on the ground along with comparison with high speed aircraft data are presented. Measurement-based estimation for the loudness of sonic boom for re-entry vehicle at descending has been made. •Re-entry vehicle space safety.•Sonic boom modelling and carpets.•Augmented Burgers equation.