A Novel Method to Estimate Base Drag and Burn Time from Flight Data Using Extended Kalman Filter

Abstract

Estimating highly spinning projectiles’ base drag and burn time by static trials is challenging. Drag profiles obtained using numerical methods or experimental or wind tunnel estimations should be updated using the estimates obtained from dynamic flight test data. This paper proposes a novel methodology to estimate the base drag and burn time from flight data using an extended Kalman Filter. Trajectory positional data is used to calculate base drag and indirect measurement of burn time. The simulation is carried out for two cases, artillery shell and rocket. The proposed method works well for both cases. Exhaustive simulation results indicate that the technique can be used for any configuration. Estimating both base drag and burn time is within 5 % accuracy.