Analysis of surface pressure distributions on two elliptic missile configurations

The state-of-the-art methods for predicting missile aerodynamic characteristics do not accurately predict the loads of missile configurations with bodies of elliptic cross section. An investigation of this problem found significant nonlinear flow disturbance on the windward surface of a 3:1 elliptic body at Mach 2.50 in addition to the nonlinear vortical flows which develop on the leeside. A nonlinear full-potential flow method (NCOREL) was found to provide extremely accurate pressure estimates for attached-flow conditions and the vortex prediction method contained in the state-of-the-art method (NOSEVTX) was shown to accurately calculate body vortices and leeside pressures.