Blue Scout Launch Vehicle. Aerodynamic Coefficient Analysis Across an Alpha-Mach Sweep
Blue Scout is a classic slender-body rocket configuration that has long been used as a validation case for external aerodynamics, making it a relevant benchmark for assessing CFD accuracy on launch-vehicle-like geometries. This benchmark evaluates a Blue Scout configuration across a fully automated sweep of Mach number and angle of attack in the transonic regime using steady Spalart-Allmaras. To replicate the experimental setup, both the freestream Mach number and mesh unit Reynolds number are specified for each case. The corresponding pairs are Mach 0.6 with Re/unit = 265,000, Mach 0.9 with Re/unit = 331,458.33, and Mach 1.03 with Re/unit = 343,333.33. Validating rocket aerodynamics in transonic flow is especially important because this regime includes complex phenomena such as shock formation and shock-boundary-layer interaction, which can strongly affect aerodynamic forces and moments during flight. Flow360 predictions of axial force, normal force, and pitching moment coefficients show strong agreement with the experimental measurements reported by Thomas C. Kelly et al., on a mesh of just 30 million nodes.
Comparison of Flow360 predictions against reference data. Click an image to expand.
