A CFD Study of the Aerodynamic Characteristics of Twardowsky and FOK Rockets

Abstract

Stability and performance are crucial characteristics for aerospace vehicles. The ability to investigate the aerodynamics and performance of rockets gives an insight into their stability before flight and the potential for design and performance enhancements. For the past 13 years, the rocketry Division within the students’ space Association of Warsaw University of technology has been developing sounding rockets of different designs and mission profiles. Two rockets have been chosen for the CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) campaigns, FOK and Twardowsky. This paper describes the mathematical model of aerodynamic loads used by the Division for sounding rocket simulation, followed by CFD campaigns for the two rockets. The results of the CFD analysis are then used to calculate the rockets’ aerodynamic derivatives according to a previously defined mathematical model.