Software for Transonic Dynamic Aero Elastic Analysis of Launch Vehicles

摘要

Transonic dynamic aero elasticity, though very important for all types of launch vehicles, has received very little computational attention. This is so because of the fact that the problem is nonlinear in nature, both structurally and aerodynamically. In addition, the complex nature of the problem makes the development of general-purpose analytical methods very difficult, if not impossible. In view of these facts, the problem of transonic buffeting has been addressed mainly through experimental investigations. However, experimental investigations are usually expensive as well as limited in scope, so that results are applicable to specific launch vehicle configurations only, and cannot be generalized. The present study is concerned with development of a software tool for predicting the buffet response of different types of launch vehicles during the design cycle. The present paper provides the formulation details and software implementation aspects, of buffet response prediction software, TRANSBUF, including sample results.