Research the opportunities of passive aerodynamic stabilization of the launch vehicle fairing shells

The detachable design elements of launch vehicles have rather extensive elements impact areas. According to the statistics of the launches, the shells of the fairings have the largest sizes of the elements impact areas. Nowadays, the problem of reducing the size of the impact areas of such launch vehicles elements, which can be solved by applying passive aerodynamic stabilization, is very relevant. Such a system will provide controlled flight of the detachable element with minimal aerodynamic quality. The paper analyzes the possibility of applying stabilizing cones on a flexible and rigid connection to reduce the size of the impact areas the cylindrical-conical head fairing shells of the launch vehicle, estimates the values of balancing attack angles and changes in the aerodynamic quality of the shells in the process of using different configurations of stabilizing devices. Research conducted in the subsonic wind tunnel of Bauman Moscow State Technical University and supplemented by numerical simulation in the software ANSYS CFX. It was revealed that the most effective variant of passive aerodynamic stabilization is the use of two stabilizing perforated hollow cones rigidly fixed in the fore and aft parts of the model. Such a stabilization option will ensure the flight of the fairing shell with zero aerodynamic quality and reduce the size of its impact area.