Utilization of CFD for the Aerodynamic Analysis of a Subsonic Rocket

Year 2020, Volume: 23 Issue: 3, 879 - 887, 01.09.2020

Zeynep Aytaç Fatih Aktaş

https://doi.org/10.2339/politeknik.711003

Cited By: 5

Abstract

Nowadays, every single country aims to have a domestic and national defense industry. In accordance with this purpose, the design of missile structures has become more important than ever. In this study, the design and analyses of a subsonic rocket was carried out with the utilization of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) tools. Also, the effects of several critical parameters; i.e. Mach number, turbulence intensity, turbulence model, on the rocket performance were investigated. It was found out that a variation in Mach number has a substantial effect on the drag coefficient; i.e. an increment in Mach number at approximately 30% results in an increment of drag coefficient nearly 68%. Contrarily, changing the turbulence intensity does not make any significant difference on drag coefficient. Although the appropriate turbulence intensity should be used for every unique problem, in this case, this parameter is not a critical variable to ponder upon. Finally, the implementation of the appropriate turbulence model is critical in the design process as expected. Utilization of k-ω and k-ω SST models differs approximately 12% in terms of drag coefficient; the drag coefficient obtained from k-ω is higher than that of obtained from k-ω SST.

Keywords

Rocket, Computational Fluid Dynamics, Design Methodology, Subsonic Flow, External Flow

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