Coning motion instability of a spinning missile induced by aeroelasticity

The coning motion is a basic angular behavior of spinning missiles. Research on the stability of coning motion is always active. In this paper, the integrated governing equations of rigid and flexible angular motions of a spinning missile with high fineness ratio are derived following the Lagrangian approach and the assumed mode method. The aeroelastic stability of the coning motion is comprehensively investigated by means of numerical simulations with taking the spinning rate as the key parameter. In case of the same dynamical coefficients, the coning motion is stable if the spinning missile is considered as a rigid body. However, it is observed that the aeroelasticity can slow down the convergent speed even pull the angular motion to be divergent, whether the spinning missile is uncontrolled or controlled.