Title: Influence of surface imperfections caused by thruster elements on the aerodynamics of a supersonic projectile

Authors: R. Hruschka; D. Klatt; F. Leopold

Addresses: French-German Research Institute of Saint Louis, BP 70034, 68301 Saint-Louis Cedex, France ' French-German Research Institute of Saint Louis, BP 70034, 68301 Saint-Louis Cedex, France ' French-German Research Institute of Saint Louis, BP 70034, 68301 Saint-Louis Cedex, France

Abstract: Pulsed side jet thrusters can be used to correct the trajectory of supersonic projectiles. After their time-of-action, these pyrotechnical thrusters leave a hole in the shaft, which sometimes also features a protuberance or burr at its rim. The current work quantifies the aerodynamic interference caused by this sub-boundary-layer disturbance by means of 3-axis-force balance measurements in a supersonic wind tunnel at Mach 3 at angles of attack between 0 and 10 degrees. Supplementary numerical time- and scale-resolving detached eddy simulations (DES) of the wind tunnel setup as well as basic theoretical correlations also support the experimental result that aerodynamic coefficients change by less than 2%, if the hole diameter is in the order of half a calibre and surface deformations protrude less than 2.5% of the calibre.

Keywords: supersonic projectiles; wind tunnel measurement; computational fluid mechanics; CFD; detached eddy simulation; DES; numerical simulation; sub-boundary-layer disturbance; circular cavity; side-jet thrusters; surface imperfections; thruster elements; aerodynamics; aerodynamic interference.

DOI: 10.1504/IJESMS.2014.063120

International Journal of Engineering Systems Modelling and Simulation, 2014 Vol.6 No.3/4, pp.115 - 123

Published online: 26 Jul 2014 *

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