Flight Mechanics of a Supersonic Projectile: A Parametric Investigation

The stability coefficients and derivatives are used to determine a vehicle's motion and are considered critical for the design of flight vehicles. In this research, the dynamic pitch derivatives of an axisymmetric projectile prototype are examined using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). For this purpose, a methodology is established by validating two test cases and then applied to a newly designed prototype. The dynamic damping derivatives are calculated using the forced oscillation approach. The pitch damping coefficients are simulated for angles of attack from 0° to 20°. A decent agreement is observed between the CFD and experimental data. The test cases are also analyzed through DATCOM for comparative analysis. A conceptual projectile geometry is designed and evaluated at a Mach number of 1.5. A parametric analysis is also conducted for the variation of Mach number and reduced pitch rate on pitch damping coefficients for the conceptual geometry. This study establishes the use of CFD to determine fast and consistent estimates for the aerodynamic stability parameters.