A Study on the Unsteady Aerodynamics of Projectiles in Overtaking Blast Flowfields

A projectile that passes through a shock wave experiences drastic changes in the aerodynamic forces. These sudden changes in the forces are attributed to the wave structures produced by the projectile-shock wave interaction. A computational study using moving grid method is performed to analyze the effect of the projectile-shock wave interaction. Cylindrical and conical projectiles have been employed to study such interactions. This sort of unsteady interaction normally takes place in overtaking blast flow fields. It is found that the overall effect of overtaking a blast wave on the unsteady aerodynamic characteristics is hardly affected by the projectile configurations. However, it is noticed that the projectile configurations do affect the unsteady flow structures and hence the drag coefficient for the conical projectile shows considerable variation from that of the cylindrical projectile. The projectile aerodynamic characteristics, when it interacts with the secondary shock wave, are analyzed. It is also observed that the change in the characteristics of the secondary shock wave during the interaction is different for different projectile configurations.