Abstract: | Many studies have been made of the optimization of the shape of bodies in a gas stream. However, the majority of these have been made for supersonic and hypersonic flow in the limiting case of a continuum [1], and only a few studies have been made [1–3] for the case of flow over a body of a rarefied gas (mainly a free molecular stream). In the present paper, the problem of shape optimization is considered for hypersonic flow of a gas of different rarefactions over a body. Numerical methods are used to investigate the influence of the Reynolds number on the shape and drag of optimal figures of revolution.Translated from Izvestiya Akademii Nauk SSSR, Mekhanika Zhidkosti i Gaza, No. 3, pp. 158–161, May–June, 1980. |