TITLE : CANISTER EXIT OF A BALISTIC MISSILE

BY : Aerospatiale - J F Chauvot

DETAILS :

• Small scale experiments were carried out in which a mock-up of a missile was held in position in the canister with the motor ignited.
• PHOENICS has been used to simulate these experiments as an axisymmetric, unsteady, turbulent and reacting flow
• k-e turbulence model and a diffusion flame model were used.

NOTES :

• PHOENICS was used after a second order Euler inviscid code gave unexplained differences with the experimental data.
• The results are compared with experimental pressure and velocity data.
• Some computations were carried out without turbulence to study the way in which turbulence modifies this specific flow.

The pictures are as follows:

Figure 1. Sketch of the experimental setup
Figure 2. Computational domain and the grid used for the computations.
Figure 3. Head-end pressure vs time showing results obtained from experiment, PHOENICS and the Euler code.
Figure 4. Near-base pressure vs time
Figure 5. Comparison of velocity fields at the head end obtained using PHOENICS both with and without turbulence.

DISCUSSION:

• Without turbulence, PHOENICS gave similar results to the Euler code, i.e. much higher than the experimental results at the head-end.

• This is emphasised by the difference in the velocity fields shown in Figure 5.

• When turbulence is added to the simulation, the PHOENICS results show good agreement with the experiments.

• This computation illustrates how PHOENICS can improve knowledge of complex flows. The simulations give a good insight of physical phenomena which occur inside the canister of a ballistic missile.

Full details of the PHOENICS simulation and the experimental results may be obtained in:

CFD with PHOENICS at Aerospatiale, Espace & Defense An Overview

J F Chauvot

Presented at the 5th International PHOENICS User Conference, Nice, September 1992. Published in the International PHOENICS Journal Vol 6, No 3 1993.

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