Missile Plume Signature Transient Events

Several problem types related to missile boost phase tranisent phenomena will be studied to evaluate the effectiveness of high-fidelity physics-based CFD tool. Innovative use of unified grid approaches and unsteady formulations in simulating missileplume transient events is expected as the outcome of this exercise. These models have applications across all DoD and many commercial programs requiring plume modeling of transient events. The enhanced capability of a physics based tool can help themilitary evaluate the robustness and performance of plume to hardbody handover algorithms against missile stagine events and plume fluctuations. The commercial sector can benefit from this capability to test sensor systems required to operate withtransient plume signatures. The technology evolving from this effort can also be the base for a design tool to analyze plume forces and heating effects on spent stages.