The dynamics of very low aspect ratio wings (or strakes) vortices in slender bodies are complex due to the interaction of the shed vortex sheet and the body vortex. For missiles at supersonic speeds these interactions are not easily predicted using engineering level tools. To shed some new light onto this problem, an experimental study in a water channel for moderate Reynolds number (Re = 1000) was performed for a 19D body and strake configuration with strakes having a span to body diameter ratio of 1.25. Comparisons to numerical simulations in supersonic flow are also performed. Flow visualisation has been carried out to characterize the vortex dynamics at different angles of attack; these being 11°, 16°, 22° and 27°. The comparison between a slender body without strakes and the body-strake configuration has given some key indicators in relation to the vortex position of the core. Furthermore, unsteady wing-body interference has been observed at angles of attack above 20° for both experimental and numerical simulations. Consequently, the average position of the vortex core is located at larger distances from the missile in comparison to the body without strakes. The numerical simulations show good correlation with the experimental tests even though the dynamic convective interactions between the body vortex and strake vortex sheet are not predicted.
A numerical and experimental investigation was performed to study the dominant flow structures in the lee side of a cruciform wing-body configuration at supersonic speeds in the + orientation. The wings or strakes are of very low aspect ratio of order 0.025 with taper ratio ≈1 with a length of 11.25D mounted on a 19D tangent ogive body. The numerical simulations were performed using Fluent with the Spalart-Allmaras turbulence model. The Mach numbers simulated were 2.0, 2.5, and 3.0 up to angles of attack of 25 deg. The simulations revealed that the flow at low angles resembles that of a body and a strake, with the dominant separated flow feature being the rolled up side-edge vortex sheet. For angles of attack ≥10 deg, the flow resembles that of a body only configuration with two symmetric vortices at the moderate angles instead of two body and two strake vortices because the body vortex coalesces with the strake vortex. Vortex shedding is initiated at crossflow Mach numbers greater than 0.55 where the coalesced body and strake vortex separates into two symmetric pairs of vortices.
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