Simulation of Weapon Underwater Launching with Computational Fluid Dynamics Software

To investigate the characteristics of water flow field and the pressure variation on weapon surface in process of weapon underwater launching, a flow field numerical simulation is performed using the commercially available computational fluid dynamics(CFD)software FLUENT based on the Reynolds averaged Navier-Stokes equations and k-ε turbulence model. Two-dimensional axisymmetric model is used in the simulation, and the inlet pressure boundary condition is set using the experimental data. Dynamic mesh method is adopted to solve the relative movement of the weapon in tube. The characteristics of launching flow field and the pressure distribution on weapon surface are thus obtained. The simulation results agree well with the moving velocity and displacement measured in launch trial. Therefore, the simulation may be regarded as an assistant tool in the optimization design of weapon and launch tube.