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The Effect of a Rear-Mounted Disc on the Drag of a Blunt-Based Body of Revolution

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 June 2016

W. A. Mair
W. A. Mair*
Affiliation:
Engineering Laboratory, Cambridge
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Summary

Experiments have shown that the drag of a body of revolution with a blunt base can be substantially reduced by mounting behind the body a disc of rather smaller diameter than the body. With a single disc the base drag was reduced by about 35 per cent and with two discs a reduction of 55 per cent was obtained. When the cavity between the body and the best single disc was filled in to form a solid boat-tailed afterbody there was an even greater reduction of drag.

A single disc mounted nearer to the body than the position giving low drag gave a large increase of drag with severely unsteady flow. The nature of the flow in both the low-drag and high-drag régimes is discussed.

Type
Research Article
Information
Aeronautical Quarterly , Volume 16 , Issue 4 , November 1965 , pp. 350 - 360
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Aeronautical Society. 1965

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