Fluid–Structure–Jet Interaction Effects on High-Speed Vehicle Performance and Stability

Abstract

This paper considers the performance and stability of high-speed vehicles due to 7changes in the vehicle configuration that introduce the interaction of multiple physics. A conventional vehicle model is developed as a reference configuration with a slender fuselage and aft control surfaces. From this baseline, different design characteristics are implemented to create successive vehicle models. The design trends under consideration are structural flexibility, attitude control jets, and removed control surfaces. The combination of these leads to a slender, flexible, cone–cylinder–flare structure with attitude control jets. The added flexibility introduces a coupled fluid–structure interaction, and the attitude control jets interact with external supersonic flow, which leads to a coupled fluid–structure–jet interaction. The complex multiphysics interaction is a nonlinear unsteady phenomenon that must be considered to simulate the vehicle response to various flight conditions and control inputs. This paper presents flight simulation results of multiple vehicle models with varying design characteristics to investigate the effect of multiphysics interactions on the system performance and stability.