Convective heating of small-radius spherical blunting for relatively low hypersonic velocities

The chemically and thermally nonequilibrium air flow over a spherically blunted cylinder for velocities within $M=6$–$18$ with free-stream parameters corresponding to the altitudes of $22$ and $37$ km is considered. The cylinder bluntness radius is varied within $R_n= 0.66$–$5.08\text{ cm}$. The initial data are chosen on the basis of a series of experimental data on convective heating of the leading critical point of spherical bluntness. These experimental data are in good agreement with the results of numerical simulation.