Effect of Ambient Pressure Fluctuations on Dual-Bell Transition Behavior

Abstract

An experimental investigation was conducted to study the effect of ambient pressure fluctuations on the dual-bell transition behavior. Ambient or backpressure fluctuations of different frequencies (1.0, 1.5, and 3 Hz) were artificially introduced inside the high-altitude simulation chamber using three magnetic valves. The dual-bell transition behavior was found to be very sensitive to backpressurefluctuations of magnitude , which triggered a flip-flop phenomenon that was observed to continue as long as the fluctuations prevailed. Increasing the throttling-up rate also did not seem to help much in achieving a stable dual-bell transition within the scope of the present tests. This, too, was not favorable, as it can lead to a delay in transition. These test results suggested that the dual-bell nozzle can present problems in real-flight operation, especially when the launcher experiences the buffeting phase of flight. The solution perhaps lies in increasing the dual-bell stability parameter to a value greater than the magnitude of backpressure fluctuations so as to avoid the nozzle pressure ratio range that will set the dual bell into a nonstop flip-flop mode during buffeting.