Numerical Investigation of NASA Tandem Control Missile and Experimental Comparison

 

Ali Akgül

Hayri Yiğit Akargün

Bora Atak

Abdullah Emre Çetiner

Ozan Göker

 

In this article, the aerodynamic performance of NASA Tandem Control Missile configuration is predicted using the FLUENT commercial CFD package and Engineering-level codes: Missile DATCOM, Aeroprediction, MISL3 and MISDL. The predictions of the engineering-level missile aerodynamic codes and the CFD results on the NASA Tandem-Control Missile are compared with wind tunnel data in order to evaluate the capabilities of these methods. The goal is to provide sample results to illustrate those flow regimes in which alternate prediction methods produce reasonable aerodynamic characteristics, and then to discuss some guidelines for the selection and use of alternate methods. Another purpose of these results is to illustrate those flow structures which require the use of advanced CFD calculations to ensure that accurate and valid results are obtained.

Key words: experimental aerodynamics, projectile aerodynamics, tandem projectile, aerodynamic characteristics, aerodynamic testing, numerical methods, numerical fluid dynamics, wind tunnel.