Flow simulation of NAL experimental supersonic airplane/booster separationusing overset unstructured grids

The overset unstructured grid method developed for multiple-body problems i s applied to a flow simulation about an experimental supersonic airplane se paration from a rocket booster. An unstructured grid around the rocket boos ter is overset on the stationary grid around the airplane and moves with ti me to simulate the separation process. Detailed components of the rocket bo oster are faithfully reproduced by the unstructured grid. This capability o f the unstructured grid reduces the number of required overset grids and si gnificantly simplifies the overset procedure. The computed result of the ai rplane/booster separation clearly simulates the complex reflection patterns of shock waves between two bodies during the separation process. The compu ted lift and pitching moment coefficients are compared with the wind tunnel results. The computational accuracy of the aerodynamic coefficients is imp roved by including the detailed components of the airplane and rocket. (C) 2001 Elsevier Science Ltd. All rights reserved.