Time-Accurate Computations of Free-Flight Aerodynamics of a Spinning Projectile with Flow Control

Abstract

This paper describes a new multidisciplinary computational study undertaken to compute the flight trajectories and simultaneously predict the unsteady free flight aerodynamics of a spinning projectile configuration both with and without aerodynamic flow control. Actual flight trajectories are computed using an advanced coupled computational fluid dynamics (CFD)/rigid body dynamics (RBD) technique. An advanced time-accurate Navier-Stokes computational technique has been used in CFD to compute the unsteady aerodynamics associated with the free flight of the spinning projectile at subsonic speeds. Computed positions and orientations of the projectile have been compared with actual data measured from free flight tests and are found to be generally in good agreement. The same advanced coupled procedure has been used to compute the aerodynamics of the spinning projectile with flow control using a synthetic microjet. Unsteady numerical results obtained from the coupled method show the flow field, the aerodynamic forces and moments, and the flight trajectories of the projectile.