Aerothermal load and drag force analysis of the electromagnetically launched projectiles under rarefied gas conditions

Abstract

Electromagnetically launched projectiles fly with hypersonic speeds in different regions of the Earth's atmosphere. Because of their hypersonic speeds, these projectiles are designed to withstand extreme thermal loads. Drag forces should also be considered to maximize the operational range. To reduce the thermal loads and drag forces, the geometric shape of these projectiles should be carefully designed. We can utilize either experimental or numerical methods to calculate these heating effects and drag forces. Numerical methods are more economic in terms of monetary cost and time. However, we cannot use the same numerical method in different regions of the Earth's atmosphere. In this paper, we used direct simulation Monte Carlo method to calculate thermal loads and drag forces of four different projectile geometries in the rarefied part of the atmosphere. Simulation results show that thermal loads and drag forces vary considerably depending on the projectile geometry.