AERODYNAMIC CHARACTERISTICS OF EXTERNAL STORE CONFIGURATIONS AT LOW-SPEEDS

Aerodynamic characteristics of external store configurations used on i nterceptor aircraft were investigated experimentally and computational ly. Balance measurements, flow visualization, and static pressure meas urements were made in a low-speed wind tunnel. The experimental and co mputational data revealed the global structure of the flow around a ba sic configuration. Six groups of models were used in the present study . This article discusses the results for the first and second group of models. The incompressible flow over a limited number of models was c omputed by solving the Navier-Stokes equations. The solution method is based on the Galerkin finite element discretization of space and the fractional step discretization of time. Reasonably good agreement was observed between the experimental and computational static pressure di stributions on a basic geometry. The computational data, which reveale d details of reverse flow regions, supported and supplemented the expe rimental data.