Numerical Prediction of Aeroacoustic Loads on a Hammerhead Nose Cone Configuration

Abstract

During flight missions, hammerhead nose cone configurations are subjected to external intense acoustic pressure fields, particularly during transonic flight regime. These intense acoustic pressure fields can excite the structures and induce noise and vibrations along the external surfaces of the configuration. These loads can also cause severe structural damage to the payload; and ultimately can destroy the whole satellite mission. Therefore, it is extremely necessary to determine unsteady pressure fluctuations and aeroacoustic loads on such configurations and consider them in the overall design load analysis to ensure that the vehicle is safe from the severity of acoustic loads. In the present work, transient CFD simulation of flow over a hammerhead nose cone configuration has been performed for a transonic Mach number of 0.83. The objectives of the present work are to compute the unsteady surface pressure fluctuations and sound pressure levels, and establish the validity and accuracy of the computational methodology. The validation has been done by comparing the numerical result with published experimental result.