Base drag, arising from flow separation at the blunt base of a body can be a sizeable fraction of total drag in the context of projectiles, missiles and after bodies of fighter aircrafts. The base drag is the major contribution of total drag for low speed regimes, flight tests have shown that the base drag may account for up to 50% of the total drag. Computational and experimental investigation for a hemispherical flight vehicle body of length 500mm and diameter 50mm was conducted for the purpose of investigating the base drag. Three case studies were conducted to investigate the properties of the flow field around the flight vehicle at different flow velocities of 20m/s, 30m/s and 50m/s at zero angle of attack (AoA). The three cases were (i) a flight vehicle with flat base configuration, (ii) a flight vehicle with a nozzle at the base and (iii) a flight vehicle configuration with a boat tail, Fig 1. Also, the three configurations were investigated at different AoA of -2, 0 and +2. The base drags for three configurations are calculated and the experimental results are compared with the CFD results.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.