Effect of Canard Interactions on Aerodynamic Performance of a Fin-Stabilized Projectile

Abstract

This study was undertaken to better understand the impact of the canard trailing vortex flow interactions on the aerodynamic design and flight performance of short length-to-diameter, fin-stabilized munitions. Advanced computational aerodynamic and parameter sensitivity analysis techniques were applied. Results indicated that airframe designs that did not consider canard trailing vortex interactions on tail fins suffered from drastically underpredicted stability. Analyses were performed with the canard trailing-edge vortex–tail-fin interactions included to design a new airframe, and the suitability of this design was verified. The aerodynamics of the resulting configuration, as determined from advanced computational techniques, compared within 25% of the predictions (stability underpredicted) using scaled aerodynamic coefficients, suggesting that inclusion of scaled interference effects is a reasonable assumption during the design process.