A NUMERICAL METHOD FOR STUDY ON THE AERO-ELASTICITY OF AIR-TO-AIR MISSILES IN OVER-THE-SHOULDER LAUNCH

In order to analyze the aero-elasticity effect of air-to-air missiles during an unpowered over-the- shoulder launch (OTS launch), a computational fluid dynamics/computational structure dynamics/rigid body dynamics(CFD/CSD/RBD) coupling numerical method is developed, using a loose coupling strategy. The computational fluid dynamics (CFD) solver is based on structured overset grid, the computational structure dynamics (CSD) solver is based on a modal approach. The validation of the present method has been conducted by comparing with experimental data. CFD/CSD/RBD coupled simulation of the OTS launch is successfully performed on a simple missile model. The test case is that the missile drops at altitude of 12km with freestream Mach number of 0.8 with 25-degree tail deflection, and falls from static status bearing aero-dynamic load and gravity. The result shows that the aero-elasticity makes the missile vibrate continuously in the falling process and synchronously causes the vibration of the aerodynamic load in the early falling stage. However, Aero- elasticity does not have significant effect on the trajectory and attitude of the missile in this paper.