Numerical Prediction of Stability Derivatives for Complex Configurations

Abstract

A Numerical method to predict the dynamic stability derivatives of complex configuration using Computational Fluid Dynamics is presented. Based on the numerical solution of forced sinusoidal oscillating motion around body axis or translational motion, both static and dynamic stability derivatives are concurrently extracted from the history of the unsteady aerodynamic force and moment coefficients. The method is validated for 3-D reference missile and aircraft dynamic test configurations. Comparisons with the wind tunnel data available in the literature are also included. Excellent comparisons with experiments showed that the present method based on unsteady simulation of RANS can provide an alternative to predict the dynamic stability derivatives for the complex configurations.