Critical assessment of hybrid and zonal wall functions for missile aerodynamics simulations

Abstract

A state-of-the-art wall function near-wall modelling capability was implemented into a general-purpose computational fluid dynamics solver to assess its performance in viscous missile aerodynamics simulations. Test cases included a simple two-dimensional boundary layer, a complex missile configuration with fixed control surfaces, and a spinning missile with dithering canards. Results indicate that judicious use of wall functions may provide a useful compromise between economy and accuracy for viscous missile aerodynamics simulations. However, the results do not indicate a substantial advantage to using any particular version of the wall functions, at least for the test cases addressed in this study.