Prediction of maneuvering reentry vehicles fluctuating pressure environments

The surface fluctuating pressure environments of a maneuvering reentry vehicle resulting from unsteady aerodynamic flows have been investigated. According to the surface pressure distribution calculated for hypersonic inviscid flow, a set of prediction formulas for statistical properties is obtained for various fluctuating pressure environments. Examples show that prediction results for the root-mean-square fluctuating pressure level, power spectral density, and cross-power spectral density are in good agreement with measurements.