Controlled flow regime transition in a dual bell nozzle by secondary radial injection

Abstract

With the ever rising demands for cheaper payload delivery to orbit, dual bell nozzle with a potential theoretical performance gain of up to 10% can represents one of the major ways of advance to achieve the goal. The well-known transition unsteadiness in a dual-bell rocket nozzle represents one of the major concerns for the development of such altitude compensating type nozzle (ACN). The present study proposes and investigates the possibilities of secondary radial injection for flow regime transition control. Present experimental results demonstrate potential effects of secondary injection on transition and re-transition control even with a relatively low secondary injection mass flow rates. Doing so, the transition and retransition process were significantly delayed towards the ideal transition point. In addition, side loads have been found to be greatly decreased or even eliminated.