Experimental Study of Very Low Aspect Ratio Wings in Slender Bodies

Abstract

The dynamics of very low aspect ratio wings (or strakes) vortices in slender bodies are complex due to the interaction of the shed vortex sheet and the body vortex. For missiles at supersonic speeds these interactions are not easily predicted using engineering level tools. To shed some new light onto this problem, an experimental study in a water channel for moderate Reynolds number (Re = 1000) was performed for a 19D body and strake configuration with strakes having a span to body diameter ratio of 1.25. Comparisons to numerical simulations in supersonic flow are also performed. Flow visualisation has been carried out to characterize the vortex dynamics at different angles of attack; these being 11°, 16°, 22° and 27°. The comparison between a slender body without strakes and the body-strake configuration has given some key indicators in relation to the vortex position of the core. Furthermore, unsteady wing-body interference has been observed at angles of attack above 20° for both experimental and numerical simulations. Consequently, the average position of the vortex core is located at larger distances from the missile in comparison to the body without strakes. The numerical simulations show good correlation with the experimental tests even though the dynamic convective interactions between the body vortex and strake vortex sheet are not predicted.