Computational Fluid Dynamics and Experimental Investigation of Wrap-Around-Fins Missile Rolling Moment

 

Emrah Gülay

Ali Akgül

Jovan Isaković

Slobodan Mandić

 

The CFD calculations of the rolling moment coefficient by the FLUENT software package and the wind tunnel measurements were performed for two missile models. One missile model is with wrap-around fins and the other missile model is with flat fins. The purpose of this paper is to compare the calculated rolling moment coefficients of the selected missile models by computational fluid dynamics (CFD) to the experimental data. The influence of the turbulence model on the accuracy of the calculated rolling moment is also analyzed. There is better agreement between the calculated and measured rolling moment coefficients in the supersonic regions than in the subsonic regions of Mach numbers. It is proved that the rolling moment coefficient of the missile with wrap-around fins can be written as the sum of the moment due to the curvature of the fins and the moment due to the cant angle of the equivalent flat fins.

Key words: aerodynamic testing, aerodynamic calculation, aerodynamic moment, rolling moment, missile, flat fin, wrap-around fin, aerodynamic coefficient, computational fluid dynamics.