Design and Numerical Simulation of Convergent Divergent Nozzle

Abstract

This works centers on the design of a De Laval (convergent - Divergent) nozzle to accelerate the flow to supersonic or hypersonic speeds and computational analysis of the same. An initial design of the nozzle is made from the method of characteristics. The coding was done in Matlab to obtain the contour of the divergent section for seven different exit Mach numbers viz. 2.5,3,3.5,4,4.5,5 and 5.5.To quantify variation in the minimum length of the nozzle divergent section with respect to the exit mach number, a throat of constant height (0.005m) and width (0.05m) was chosen for all the design. The area exit required for each mach no varying from 1 to 5.5 was plotted using isentropic relations and was also used to verify the exit area of the nozzle for each of those mach numbers. An estimate of the exit pressure ratio is obtained by using isentropic and normal shock relations. With this exit pressure ratio, a more refined verification is done by computational analysis using ANSYS Fluent software for a contour nozzle with exit Mach number 5.5. The spalart Allmaras and k-epsilon model were used for turbulence modeling.