Influence of Aircraft Flow Field on the Longitudinal Stability of a Missile

  • Konark Arora Defence Research & Development Laboratory, Hyderabad
  • Vaibhav Shah Defence Research & Development Laboratory, Hyderabad
  • K. Anandhanarayanan Defence Research & Development Laboratory, Hyderabad
  • R Krishnamurthy Defence Research & Development Laboratory, Hyderabad
  • Debasis Chakraborty Defence Research & Development Laboratory, Hyderabad
Keywords: Grid-free, store separation, chimera cloud, high speed, longitudinal stability

Abstract

An air-to-air missile launched from a fighter aircraft needs to be stable at launch to enable safe separation from the aircraft, and less stable in the terminal phase of its flight to become highly maneuverable to intercept the targets. A study has been carried out to estimate the effect of the aircraft flow field on the longitudinal stability of the missile using an in-house developed 3-D grid-free Euler solver. Initially, the missiles are placed in the captive location in the launcher of the aircraft. One of the missiles is then moved to various pre-determined locations ahead of the wing of the aircraft, keeping the other missile at the captive location. The centre of pressure and stability margin of the missile is determined at these locations. It is observed that the presence of aircraft has a substantial effect on the longitudinal stability of the missile. The centre of pressure of the missile is seen to move aft as it leaves the launcher. As the missile moves, the centre of pressure reaches a maximum aft position and then moves forward till it reaches a position where the missile is free from the influence of the aircraft. It is observed that as the missile moves away from the region of strong influence of the aircraft, its aerodynamic characteristics approach asymptotically to that of the isolated missile.

Defence Science Journal, 2013, 63(3), pp.242-248DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.14429/dsj.63.2099

Author Biographies

Konark Arora, Defence Research & Development Laboratory, Hyderabad
Dr Konark Arora obtained his PhD (Aerospace Eng.) from Indian Institute of Science (IISc), Bengaluru, in 2007. Currently working   he in Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) Division, DOCD, Defence Research and Development Laboratory (DRDL), Hyderabad. His areas of interest includes: Computational fluid dynamics, aerodynamics, kinetic schemes and meshless methods.
Vaibhav Shah, Defence Research & Development Laboratory, Hyderabad
Mr Vaibhav Shah received his bTech (Mechanical Eng.) from REC, Kurukshetra in 2002.  He is working in the DRDL, Hyderabad since 2004.  He has 2 journal and 5 conference publications to his credit. His areas of interests include: Code development for CFD applications, structured/unstructured grid-generation and CFD flow simulation over missiles.
K. Anandhanarayanan, Defence Research & Development Laboratory, Hyderabad
Dr K. Anandhanarayanan received his PhD (Aerospace Eng.) from IISc, Bengaluru. He is working in the DRDL, Hyderabad since 1993.  He has 10 journal and  45 conference publications to his credit. His areas of interests include: Algorithm development for CFD applications, grid-free Euler and Navier-stokes solvers, direct simulation monte carlo based Euler-boltzmann coupled solver for non-equilibrium transitional flows and distributed computing.
R Krishnamurthy, Defence Research & Development Laboratory, Hyderabad
Dr R. Krishnamurthy received his PhD (Aerospace Eng.) from IISc, Bengaluru. Presently heading the CFD Division IN DRDl, Hyderabad. He has developed indigenously advanced CFD solvers and grid generators for simulating steady and unsteady flows for missile aerodynamics.  He has published more than 50 technical papers.  He is a recipient of Dr biren Roy Trust Award – 1991, DRDO Technology Award – 1994 and DRDL Technology Award – 2008.  He is a Fellow of The Institution of Engineers (India) and council member of the AP State Centre of IEI.
Debasis Chakraborty, Defence Research & Development Laboratory, Hyderabad
Dr debasis Chakraborty obtained his PhD (Aerospace Eng.)  from IISc, Bengaluru. Presently, he is working as Technology Director, Computational Dynamics, DRDl, Hyderabad. He has about 48 journal and 58 conference publications to his credit.His research interests include: CFD, aerodynamics, high speed combustion and propulsion.
Published
2013-05-16
How to Cite
Arora, K., Shah, V., Anandhanarayanan, K., Krishnamurthy, R., & Chakraborty, D. (2013). Influence of Aircraft Flow Field on the Longitudinal Stability of a Missile. Defence Science Journal, 63(3), 242-248. https://doi.org/10.14429/dsj.63.2099
Section
Aeronautical Systems

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