An Aerodynamic Analysis of a Spinning Missile with Dithering Canards

A generic spinning missile with dithering canards is used to demonstrate the utility of an overset structured grid approach for simulating the aerodynamics of rolling airframe missile systems. A grid convergence study andassessment of viscous effects shows that a medium-resolution viscous grid with 8 million grid points provides a good compromise between solution accuracy and throughput. Viscous effects should be included in detailed studies to capture the interaction between the inboard canard vortex and the fuselage and tail boundary layers. The computed results agree well with experimental data. A database of cases with variation of angle of attack and the strength of control authority of a pitch-up maneuver is computed to evaluate missile performance. The case throughput rates are sufficient to contemplate population of aerodynamic databases with Navier-Stokes computations. Overall, the structured overset grid approach enables accurate and efficient simulation of rolling airframe missile configurations that involve relative motion between system components.