Pitching motion characteristics of a supersonic missile using CFD

A computational study of the pitching motion characteristics for a supersonic missile is described in this paper. First, the pitching dynamic derivatives of Basic Finner Missile (BFM) have been calculated and compared with the available experimental data at Mach number from 1.5 to 2.5 and are found to be generally in good agreement. The results demonstrate that the method can provide an accurate and viable approach for this problem. Then, Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) modeling and analysis of the supersonic missile have been conducted to determine the pitching motion characteristics at Mach number 2.5 under different reduced frequency and the pitch amplitude. The results show that the reduce frequency has some effect on the dynamic derivatives, and the dynamic characteristics change with the increase of the amplitude. The absolute value of the pitch damping moment coefficient and steady pitch moment coefficient firstly increases with the pitch amplitude and then decreases getting maximum value at about 30 degree.