Drag on Prolate Spheroids for a Wide Range of Mach and Reynolds Numbers at Zero Angle-of-Attack

The aim of this poster is to showcase ongoing efforts regarding the characterization and correlation for the drag coefficient of an isolated spheroid. The effort attempts to expand on previous efforts that focus on low Mach, where in this effort the input range is expanded to a wider range of Mach numbers from subsonic, to low-hypersonic flow (i.e., 0-6). The effort also spans Reynolds numbers relevant to particulate flow (0 to 250) and aspect ratios of 1 to 4. In addition, the effort only considers the effect of the spheroid at a zero degree angle-of-attack, hence, aims to provide insight on one of many geometric sensitivities. The effort uses computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and simulates the flow over a stationary isolated spheroid using STAR CCM+, a commercial CFD package. The computed drag forces were then appropriately normalized to obtain the drag coefficient. Using these data, the effort developed new correlations for the drag coefficient relevant to varied Mach and Reynolds numbers with the added dimension of aspect ratio.