A Sensitivity Investigation on the Aeroelastic Dynamic Stability of Slender Spinning Sounding Rockets

Abstract

The present work addresses a sensitivity analysis investigation of the aeroelastic stability margins for the VSB-30 sounding rocket during the atmospheric flight phase. Parametric stability analyses are performed considering variations of the inertia properties of the modular payload. Such variations can be caused by different type and/or number of experiments (payload modules). The aerodynamic model is based on a supersonic unsteady potential aerodynamic method. Freestream conditions depend on the flight speed and atmosphere. An equivalent structural dynamic model of the rocket is represented by a beam-like structure. The objective of this investigation is to establish an aeroelastic model for aeroelastic stability and response analyses, as well as a procedure for the identification of stability margins for rockets. The resulting aeroelastic model should be further used in MDO processes for the improvement of the vehicle flight performance. The results of the present effort indicate that the flutter behavior of the VSB-30 sounding rocket is sufficiently robust inside the operational envelope, even considering the environmental and loading conditions. The spinning effect, in this case, does not play a significant role, because the flutter margins remain almost unaltered with and without VSB-30 body spin.

Estimation of Low Rotation Frequency Based on Doppler Shift Observations

“…The attitude information of projectiles is an important parameter in the navigation system. In order to ensure the stability of their flight, sounding rockets and intelligent ammunition projectiles usually maintain their own rotation during flight movement and their spinning movement directly affects the work of various attitude measurement devices [1,2]. Common attitude information estimation methods are available including inertial navigation system (INS), geomagnetic sensor, GNSS receiver, etc.…”