This post is about the CFD analysis of a missile in flight at an ambient mach number of 0.5 - 4.5. The missile geometry is shown in Fig. 1. The CAD files for the missile are available to download here.
Fig. 1, Finner missile CAD
The projectile had dimensions as given in [1]. The simulations are validated with published literature [1, 2]. SolidWorks Flow Simulation Premium software is employed for the simulations. Fig. 2 shows results of Cnα, Cmα and Cd at various Mach numbers compared with the published results [1, 2]. It can be seen that the results are in close agreement with the experimental data.
Fig. 2, Δα = 1°
The mesh has 7,486,591 cells in total. With 417,064 cells on the missile surface. Special mesh refinements are added in the regions of interest i.e. regions with high gradients, the wake and on the surface of the missile. The mesh is shown in Fig. 3.
Fig. 3, The computational mesh
The results from the CFD post processing are presented next. iso-surfaces showing pressure distribution around the missile, coloured by Mach number are shown in Fig. 4. the scale for Fig. 4 ranges from 0 - 6.0.
Fig. 4, CFD post processing
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[1] Vishal A. Bhagwandin and Jubaraj Sahu, "Numerical Prediction of Pitch Damping Stability Derivatives for Finned Projectiles Numerical Prediction of Pitch Damping Stability Derivatives for Finned Projectiles", Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets, volume 51, number 5, 2014
[2] Jacob Allen and Mehdi Ghoreyshi, "Forced motions design for aerodynamic identification and modeling of a generic missile configuration", Aerospace Science and Technology, volume 77, pp 742-754, 2018
