CFD simulation and parameter analysis on launch performance of two-stage light-gas propulsion

Abstract

This work presents numerical simulation and parameter studies on a two-stage light-gas launcher with a piston-compressor type. An adaptive grid generation algorithm is developed to consider the changes of the computational domain due to the motion of the piston and projectile after diaphragms are opened. A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) code is utilised to simulate the interaction of the gas dynamics with piston and projectile motion, and lots of data, such as the pressure on compression tube, the piston velocity, the diaphragm failure pressure, etc. are obtained under given geometry parameters and loading conditions. The effects of loading parameters on the launching performance are discussed. According to the numerical results, it is concluded that the developed CFD model can provide theoretical references for structure dimension design and loading parameter configuration of light-gas launcher.