Mechanical Actuators for guidance of a supersonic projectile

In this paper, the results of a series of experiments to determine the feasibility of using small actuators to provide, directional control for a supersonic projectile are presented. A method to control the flight of the projectile was proposed, which takes advantage of complex shock-boundary-layer interactions produced by mechanical devices. Experimental tests were conducted at the Georgia Tech Research Institute in a supersonic wind tunnel to screen actuator locations, and these tests provided insights into the best actuator locations and force levels that were found to be large enough to produce high g turns on a notional projectile. Further experiments were conducted on a scale projectile to measure the moment produced on a notional Mach 4 projectile. Several different mechanical actuators were tested, which served to provide guidance for future actuator designs. Computational fluid dynamics results were also used to predict the results in flight. It was found that the forces predicted by the computational fluid dynamics and measured by the experiments were quite close, which lends credence to both methods. The results from the experimental and numerical efforts were used to design test articles that were successfully fired at an Army Research Lab test range.