Numerical Investigation of the Dynamic Characteristics of a Dual-Throat-Nozzle for Fluidic Thrust-Vectoring

Abstract

A computational method tailored for the simulation of fluidic thrust-vectoring systems is employed to investigate the dynamic response of a dual-throat nozzle in open- and closed-loop control. Thrust vectoring in fixed, symmetric nozzles is obtained by secondary flow injections that cause local flow separations, asymmetric pressure distributions, and, as a consequence, the vectoring of primary jet flow. The computational technique is based on a well-assessed mathematical model for the compressible unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equations. A minimal control system governs the unsteady blowing. Nozzle performances and thrust-vector angles have been computed for a wide range of nozzle pressure ratios and secondary flow injection rates. The numerical results are compared with the experimental data available in the open literature. Several computations of the open-loop dynamics of the nozzle under different forcing have been performed to investigate the system response in terms of thrust-vectoring effectiveness and controllability. These computations have been used to extract autoregressive exogenous models of the nozzle dynamics. The effects of including the actuator dynamics are also discussed. Simple strategies of closed-loop control of the nozzle system by proportional–integrative–derivative regulators are investigated numerically. The closed-loop model predictive control of the system, based on the autoregressive exogenous models, is addressed.