CFD rebuilding of USV-DTFT1 vehicle in-flight experiment

The aim of this paper is to present some numerical rebuilding results of the in-flight aerodynamic experiment carried out during the first mission Dropped Transonic Flight Test (DTFT) of the Italian Aerospace Research Centre (CIRA) Unmanned Space Vehicle (USV). USV is a multi-mission, re-usable vehicle developed at CIRA and it is funded by the Italian National Aerospace Research Program (PRO.R.A.). The first mission was performed at the end of February 2007, and it was aimed at experimenting the transonic flight of a re-entry vehicle. One of the aims of the aerodynamic experiment is the validation and improvement of the prediction tools (CFD, extrapolation to flight) through the comparison between pre-flight predictions and in-flight measured data. Some selected flight conditions occurred during the DTFT mission have been numerically rebuilt aimed at reproducing the most relevant fluid dynamic phenomena characterizing the USV vehicle aerodynamics. The analysis of numerically rebuilt flight conditions has allowed the assessment of local non-linear phenomenologies and, depending on both the analysis of the numerical results and the comparison with the flight data, an assessment of the entire CFD methodology.