• Journal of the Computational Structural Engineering Institute of Korea
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• v.33 no.6
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• pp.375-382
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• 2020

Owing to the rapid development of infrared guided weapon systems, the threat to aircraft survivability is constantly increasing, and research on infrared stealth technologies are being conducted to ensure aircraft survival. In this study, we analyze the minimum infrared signature of an aircraft according to its flight altitude by considering the characteristics of infrared guided missiles, which detect the contrast signature between the aircraft and background. We conducted computational fluid dynamics simulations for the convective coefficient, and heat transfer simulations were performed considering convection, conduction, and radiation for flight conditions. Thus, we obtained the surface temperature distribution of the aircraft and analyzed the aircraft infrared signature based on the flow characteristics around it. Furthermore, the optimum emissivity for the minimum infrared signature was derived, and the effect of the infrared signature was analyzed when this optimum emissivity was applied to the fuselage surface for each flight condition.