The Influence of the Computational Mesh on the Prediction of Vortex Interactions about a Generic Missile Airframe

Abstract

A research program has been underway for four years to study vortex interaction aerodynamics that are relevant to military air vehicle performance. The program has been conducted under the auspices of the NATO Science and Technology Organization (STO), Applied Vehicle Technology (AVT) panel by a Task Group with the identification of AVT-316. The Missile Facet of this group has concentrated their work on the vortical flow field around a generic missile airframe and its prediction via computational methods. This paper focuses on mesh-related effects and RANS simulations. Simulated vortex characteristics were found to depend strongly on the properties of the employed mesh, in terms of both resolution and topology. Predictions of missile aerodynamic coefficients show a great dependence on mesh properties as they are sensitive to computed vortex dynamics. Key suggestions about the desired mesh characteristics have been made. Based on these, a shared mesh was constructed to perform common analyses between the AVT-316 Missile Facet members. Mesh based uncertainties of the aerodynamic coefficient predictions were estimated via Richardson Extrapolation method.