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Vertical wind tunnel for prediction of rocket flight dynamics

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journal contribution
posted on 2023-05-18, 23:05 authored by Bryson, H, Sultrop, HP, Buchanan, G, Hann, C, Snowdon, M, Rao, A, Slee, A, Fanning, K, Wright, D, Jason McVicarJason McVicar, Clark, B, Harris, G, Chen, XQ
A customized vertical wind tunnel has been built by the University of Canterbury Rocketry group (UC Rocketry). This wind tunnel has been critical for the success of UC Rocketry as it allows the optimization of avionics and control systems before flight. This paper outlines the construction of the wind tunnel and includes an analysis of flow quality including swirl. A minimal modelling methodology for roll dynamics is developed that can extrapolate wind tunnel behavior at low wind speeds to much higher velocities encountered during flight. The models were shown to capture the roll flight dynamics in two rocket launches with mean roll angle errors varying from 0.26° to 1.5° across the flight data. The identified model parameters showed consistent and predictable variations over both wind tunnel tests and flight, including canard–fin interaction behavior. These results demonstrate that the vertical wind tunnel is an important tool for the modelling and control of sounding rockets.

History

Publication title

Aerospace

Article number

10

Number

10

Pagination

1-27

ISSN

2226-4310

Department/School

School of Engineering

Publisher

MDPIAG

Place of publication

Switzerland

Rights statement

Copyright 2016 the Authors. Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International (CC BY 4.0) https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

Repository Status

  • Open

Socio-economic Objectives

Aerospace transport not elsewhere classified

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