Aerodynamic Characterisation of Ramjet Missile through Combined External-internal Computational Fluid Dynamics Simulation

Abstract

Combined external-internal flow simulation is required for the estimation of aerodynamic forces and moments of high speed air-breathing vehicle design. A wingless, X-tail configuration with asymmetrically placed rectangular air intake is numerically explored for which experimental data is available for different angles of attack. The asymmetrically placed air intakes and protrusions make the flow field highly three-dimensional and existing empirical relations are inadequate for preliminary design. Three dimensional Navier Stokes equations along with SST-kω turbulence model were solved with a commercial CFD solver to analyse the combined external and internal flow field of the configuration at different angles of attack. Estimated aerodynamic coefficients match well with experimental data and estimated drag coefficient are within 8.5 per cent of experimental data. Intake performance parameters were also evaluated for different angles of attack.