Committee Chair

Sreenivas, Kidambi

Committee Member

Margraves, Charles; Newman, James C., III

Department

Dept. of Mechanical Engineering

College

College of Engineering and Computer Science

Publisher

University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Place of Publication

Chattanooga (Tenn.)

Abstract

As technology continues to evolve for aircraft-deployed weapons, computational approaches to store separation analysis face new challenges. Anticipating vehicle designs that require upward store ejection, this study uses computational fluid dynamics and 6DoF motion analysis to predict such store trajectories in high-speed flow. Several store designs are analyzed at various ejection velocities in Mach 4 and Mach 6 conditions. The trajectory results show that streamlined store geometries may not induce sufficient drag to clear the aircraft after ejection. However, store designs with drag-enhancing features show potential for safe separation trajectories. To account for the unsteady effects of a cavity door which opens just prior to store ejection, dynamic cavity door simulations are presented, comparing their results to a quasi-static approach. The results show that such cavity opening effects impact pressure loads on the store, which may be critical for accurate store trajectory predictions.

Acknowledgments

I would like to acknowledge and thank those who have contributed to the success of this work. Your efforts, creative ideas, and continual support have made this possible. Thank you, Dr. Kidambi Sreenivas, for the many months of mentorship you have provided. All that I have learned from your expertise makes me a stronger professional, and I hope that our field of study strengthens as a result. I am grateful for Dr. Charles Margraves and Dr. James Newman for their role on my thesis committee alongside Dr. Sreenivas. My appreciation also extends to the rest of the UTC Department of Mechanical Engineering – the professors and staff whose work has equipped me for the career opportunities ahead. Thanks are also due to the UTC Research Institute at the University of Tennessee Chattanooga for providing computational resources. For their contributions, I would like to thank Dr. Jon Poggie (Purdue University) and Dr. Brett Hauber (University of Dayton Research Institute). Dr. Poggie’s suggestion for the backward cone configuration accelerated the success of the study. Dr. Hauber has provided designs and mass properties for various store concepts. Thank you, also, to Ralph Noack (Celeritas Simulation Technology, LLC) for your support to apply Suggar++ to this application. This work would not have been possible without the funding provided through the Design of Resilient Hypersonic Vehicle Structures (DRHVS) program by the Air Force Research Laboratory, Aerospace System Directorate, High Speed Systems Division (AFRL/RQH), Prime Contract Number FA8650-21-C-2408 with Dr. Jerrod Hofferth as the technical monitor.

Degree

M. S.; A thesis submitted to the faculty of the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Science.

Date

5-2024

Subject

Computational fluid dynamics; Projectiles, Aerial--Aerodynamics--Mathematics

Keyword

store separation; computational fluid dynamics; CFD; simulation

Document Type

Masters theses

DCMI Type

Text

Extent

xx, 136 leaves

Language

English

Rights

http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/

License

http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

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