Experimental and computational fluid dynamics around supersonic biplane for sonic-boom reduction

The "supersonic biplane theory" has been proposed in order to reduce the sonic boom in supersonic flight. This theory can be realized at a certain design Mach number, but it cannot be performed at off-design ones. Therefore, some innovations and multidisciplinary design optimization are strongly required to improve the off-design performance. At first, the aerodynamic characteristics around biplanes as a baseline configuration have to be analyzed in order to contribute to the conceptual design of the supersonic biplane. Especially, CFD analyses can produce effective results for the flow phenomena to be captured comprehensively; however, they have to be validated by experimental results. The purpose of this study is to demonstrate experimentally the shock wave interference and cancellation between the wings of biplanes based on the "supersonic biplane theory". Supersonic and transonic flow fields around the biplanes are also examined by CFD analyses and experimental results. This interdisciplinary data will hopefully assist in the effective conceptual design and multi-objective design exploration (MODE) of the supersonic biplane in the near future.