Acceleration effects on missile aerodynamics

Abstract

Practical requirements are now arising in which significant acceleration takes place during flight; 5th generation missiles, such as A-Darter, execute turns at 100 g, where g is the acceleration due to gravity, and thrust from propulsion systems may approach 500 g. In the design of an aircraft, prediction of the aerodynamic forces to appropriate accuracy is vital. Experimental and numerical methods are applicable over many ranges of parameter space which are of practical importance for aircraft, missiles, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), and for engines and rotating components such as compressors, turbines and helicopter rotors. However, conventional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) provides well-validated models only for constant velocity and constant angular velocity. The CSIR and the Swedish Defence Research Agency FOI are extending the possible techniques to accelerating objects.