Numerical Investigation of Aerodynamic Uncertainties Caused by Turbulence Modeling for a Missile in Transonic Flow

This study describes the approach for assessing the uncertainties in CFD simulations solving the Reynolds-Averaged Navier Stokes (RANS) equations for a generic missile geometry in transonic flows. The steady-state RANS simulations are performed for two Mach numbers of 0.8 and 1.2 for the generic missile geometry. Especially, the uncertainties in aerodynamic performance caused by turbulence modeling is investigated. The SU2 EQUiPS Module is used to evaluate uncertainties in the axial force coefficient for a range of angle of attack values. The results with the perturbed solutions show that the uncertainty bounds for the numerical results with the SST turbulence model agree well with the experimental data. The insights gained by the uncertainty quantification in RANS simulations to assess the accuracy of the numerical solutions helps better understanding of performance analyses for missile aerodynamics, and contribute to better knowledge and informed decision-making in design and control of missiles.