Theoretical prediction of roll moment on wing-controlled missile

Abstract

A computational scheme capable of making an accurate prediction of roll moment for a wing-control configuration is presented. The panel method is employed to solve the subsonic potential flow. The trailing vortex sheet shed from the wing is modeled by a bundle of vortex filaments, and the distortion of the vortex sheet is determined by coupling the panel method with an iterative technique. Calculated roll moment for the wingcontrol configuration of in-line tail arrangement is compared with the measured data, and satisfactory agreement between them is obtained. Since the adopted scheme has been proven accurate, it is applied to investigate the effects of missile configurations of the roll moment. This investigation focuses on the following: 1) the problem of the roll moment of the interdigitated tail arrangement, and 2) an analysis of the effect of tail span ratio to the adverse roll moment induced upon tail surfaces.