Experimental und numerical investigation of the aerodynamic characteristic of a generic transonic missile

Abstract

A study of the aerodynamic characteristics of two missile configurations has been performed using the data of an experiment, of a semi-empirical aerodynamic prediction code (Missile Datcom) and a RANS flow solver (TAU). The aerodynamic coefficients for different angles of attack and roll angles for Mach numbers of M= 0.85 and 1.2 are compared. Considering the design of the configurations one is rather unconventional with large aspect ratio wings. Whereas the other one has conventional wings with a small aspect ratio. The latter sustains large lift forces at high angles of attack due to the occurrence of vortices while the former performs better at low angles of attack. The comparison of the experimental data with the TAU predicted aerodynamic coefficients shows a good agreement for both configurations in the entire AoA-range. Regarding Missile Datcom, for the unconventional design the accuracy of the predicted data decreases with increasing angle of attack but remains almost constant for the conventional.