Cavity Flow over a Transonic Weapons Bay During Door Operation

Abstract

This paper considers a transonic, idealized, weapons bay. The doors are either fixed or opened in a dynamic way. The flow evolves in three stages during door opening, corresponding to closed-cavity flow, transitional flow, and (finally) open-cavity flow. The transition needs to be taken into account to design structures, as the bay wall loads are amplified, as well as the noise. The flow fluctuations are also larger than for the fully established flow. The doors limit the development of the shear layer at the early stage of the door opening.