Aerodynamic study of sounding rocket flows using Chimera and patched multiblock meshes
doi: 10.5028/jatm.2011.03016810

João Alves de Oliveira Neto
Instituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica
São José dos Campos – Brazil
alves@ita.br

Edson Basso
Instituto de Aeronáutica e Espaço
São José dos Campos – Brazil
edsonbassoeb@iae.cta.br

João Luiz F. Azevedo*
Instituto de Aeronáutica e Espaço
São José dos Campos – Brazil
joaoluiz.azevedo@gmail.com

*author for correspondence

Abstract:

Aerodynamic flow simulations over a typical sounding rocket are presented in this paper. The work is inserted in the effort of developing computational tools necessary to simulate aerodynamic flows over configurations of interest for Instituto de Aeronáutica e Espaço of Departamento de Ciência e Tecnologia Aeroespacial. Sounding rocket configurations usually require fairly large fins and, quite frequently, have more than one set of fins. In order to be able to handle such configurations, the present paper presents a novel methodology which combines both Chimera and patched multiblock grids in the discretization of the computational domain. The flows of interest are modeled using the 3-D Euler equations and the work describes the details of discretization procedure, which uses a finite difference approach for structure, body-conforming, multiblock grids. The method is used to calculate the aerodynamics of a sounding rocket vehicle. The results indicate that the present approach can be a powerful aerodynamic analysis and design tool.

Keywords:

Chimera grids, Patched multiblock grids, Sounding rockets.

J. Aerosp.Technol. Manag., São José dos Campos, Vol.3, No.1, pp. 87-98, Jan. - Apr., 2011
Received: 11/05/10
Accepted: 22/10/10