Control of plume interference effects on axisymmetric afterbodies

Abstract

Plume interference effects on the axisymmetric flowfields around powered missiles are investigated using computational techniques. The study is mainly to understand the physics of the plume-induced shock and separation particularly at high plume to exit pressure ratios with and without shock-turbulent boundary layer control methods. Mass-averaged Navier-Stokes equations with the RNG k-ε turbulence model are solved using a fully implicit finite volume scheme and time-marching algorithm. The shock position and extent of separation was found to be dependent on the freestream Mach number and plume pressure ratio. Rounding the tail or a groove on the surface near the tail moved the shockwave downstream of the tail fin which should enhance the control of the missile.