Open Access

ARTICLE

Shock-Wave/Rail-Fasteners Interaction for Two Rocket Sleds in the Supersonic Flow Regime

Bin Wang¹, Jing Zheng¹, Yuanyuan Yu^1,2, Runmin Lv¹, Changyue Xu^1,*

1 Key Laboratory of Aircraft Environment Control and Life Support, MIIT, Nanjing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Nanjing, 210016, China
2 AVIC Aerospace Life-Support Industries, Ltd., Xiangyang, 441003, China

* Corresponding Author: Changyue Xu. Email:

(This article belongs to this Special Issue: High-Speed and High-Temperature Flows)

Fluid Dynamics & Materials Processing 2020, 16(4), 675-684. https://doi.org/10.32604/fdmp.2020.09681

Received 15 January 2020; Accepted 23 April 2020; Issue published 11 August 2020

Abstract

Rocket sleds belong to a category of large-scale test platforms running on the ground. The applications can be found in many fields, such as aerospace engineering, conventional weapons, and civil high-tech products. In the present work, shock-wave/rail-fasteners interaction is investigated numerically when the rocket sled is in supersonic flow conditions. Two typical rocket sled models are considered, i.e., an anti-D shaped version of the rocket sled and an axisymmetric slender-body variant. The dynamics for Mach number 2 have been simulated in the framework of a dynamic mesh method. The emerging shock waves can be categorized as head-shock, tailing-shock and reflected-shock. An unsteady large-scale vortex and related shock dynamics have been found for the anti-D shaped rocket sled. However, a quasi-steady flow state exists for the slender-body shaped rocket sled. It indicates that the axisymmetric geometry is more suitable for the effective production of rocket sleds. With the help of power spectral density analysis, we have also determined the characteristic frequencies related to shock-wave/rail-fasteners interaction. Furthermore, a harmonic phenomenon has been revealed, which is intimately related to a shock wave reflection mechanism.

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Keywords

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