Low Nozzle Pressure Ratios Research Articles

Characterization of the Three-Dimensional Flowfield over a Truncated Linear Aerospike

The work focuses on the characterization of the flowfield over a truncated linear aerospike by combining theoretical grounds, numerical simulations and experimental tests. The experimental investigations are carried out on a test rig designed at Politecnico di Torino for advanced nozzle testing. Fully three-dimensional CFD analyses are performed on the actual geometry of the experimental nozzle model. At low nozzle pressure ratios (nprs) the analysis combines numerical simulations and experimental testing, which are also used for validating the CFD results. At higher nprs, the flowfield characterization is performed only by three-dimensional CFD analyses. In addition to the validation of the numerical method, the edge effects at different nprs have been observed.

Numerical study on altitude-compensating mechanism of a permeable nozzle

A conceptual adaptive altitude compensation nozzle with a permeable wall (permeable nozzle for short) is proposed in the present study. The typical operating states of the nozzle are demonstrated using numerical methods and the underlying mechanism of its altitude compensation is interpreted. The numerical results show that, at low nozzle pressure ratios, the external atmosphere enters the nozzle through its permeable wall section, which inhibits the backflow at the nozzle wall, weakens the strength of the separated oblique shock, thus improves the low-altitude thrust performance of the nozzle. However, at high nozzle pressure ratios, the exhaust gas leaves the nozzle through its permeable wall, which weakens the expansion of the exhaust gas and reduces the thrust performance. The permeable nozzle is considered to possess altitude compensation ability when the enhancement in its low-altitude thrust performance surpasses the deterioration in high-altitude thrust performance. The thrust composition analysis of the permeable nozzle reveals that its altitude compensation ability derives from the internal pressure rise due to the atmospheric air penetration into the nozzle at low nozzle pressure ratios.

Investigation of suddenly expanded flows at subsonic Mach numbers using an artificial neural networks approach.

The purpose of this study is to explore two concepts: first, the use of artificial neural networks (ANN) to forecast the base pressure (β) and wall pressure (ω) originating from a suddenly expanded flow field at subsonic Mach numbers. Second, the implementation of Garson approach to determine the critical operating parameters affecting the suddenly expanded subsonic flow process in the subsonic range. In a MATLAB environment, a network model was constructed based on a multilayer perceptron with an input, hidden, and output layer. The network input parameters were the Mach number (M), nozzle pressure ratio (η), area ratio (α), length to diameter ratio (γ), micro jet control (ϵ), and duct location to length ratio (δ). The network output included two variables; base pressure (β) and wall pressure (ω). The ANN was trained and tested using the experimental data. The experimental results found that micro-jet controls were successful in increasing the base pressure for low Mach numbers and high nozzle pressure ratios. It was also found that the wall pressure was same for with and without micro jet control. The ANN predicted values agreed well with the experimental values, with average relative errors of less than 5.02% for base pressure and 6.71% for wall pressure. Additionally, with a relative significance of 32% and 43%, the nozzle pressure ratio and duct location to length ratio had the highest influence on the base pressure and wall pressure, respectively. The results demonstrate that the ANN model is capable of accurately predicting the pressure results, enabling theoretical foundation for research into pressure distribution in aerodynamic systems.

Effect of Flap Deflection on Single-Expansion-Ramp Nozzles Performance at Different Pressure Ratios

Experiments have been carried out to investigate the various performance characteristics of single-expansion-ramp nozzle with straight and deflected flap conditions for two different flap lengths. Experiments were performed at different nozzle pressure ratios (NPRs) ranging between 1.5 and 9. Wall static pressure measurements were made to estimate the various performance parameters, such as surface axial force, normal force, overall axial force, pitching moment, and thrust vectoring angles. Schlieren flow visualization technique was adopted to understand the internal shock-induced flow separation and shock patterns inside the nozzle under various NPRs. Flap deflection and NPR control the shock location through area variation, and thus the pressure distribution on the walls. At low NPRs, the internal drag force generated by deflected flap is lesser than that by straight flap, whereas at high NPRs the straight flap produces significantly higher surface axial thrust over the deflected flap. Behavior of normal force and pitching moment was affected by two factors: flap length and shock location. The straight flap shows significantly higher normal force than deflected flap. Hence, the thrust vectoring was better for straight flap nozzles compared to deflected flap nozzles, over the full range of NPRs tested. On the other hand, the gross thrust force performance is better for the straight flap for low NPRs and for the deflected flap for high NPRs. Overall, at high speeds, longer deflected flap appears to give better performance considering all the parameters, but will lead to heavier nozzle.

Role of non-circular jets in the performance of Hartmann whistles

Non-circular jets impinging on open-closed type cylindrical cavity are investigated. Five different orifice shapes, namely, circle, ellipse, rectangle, square, and triangle, are used to produce under-expanded jets. For a given orifice shape, experiments were done at four different Nozzle Pressure Ratios (NPRs), 3 to 4.5 in steps of 0.5. The Sound Pressure Level (SPL), the Overall Sound Pressure Level (OASPL) and the pressure inside the cavity are also monitored. In addition, the corresponding high-speed schlieren images are acquired. Circular orifice jet and cylindrical cavity combination emitted the highest noise levels. These devices produced tonal sounds around 130 dB. At low NPRs, there was not much difference in the performance of the Hartmann whistle for different shaped jets. However, at high NPRs, a substantial dip in OASPL value was found at the vertex compared to the span of different shaped orifice jets (rectangle, square, and triangle).

Numerical Analysis of Flowfield in Linear Plug Nozzle with Base Bleed

A linear aerospike nozzle is a kind of altitude adaptive nozzle that has optimum performance over the entire operational range. In this work, flow characteristics of a linear plug nozzle and a truncated plug with 40% plug length are studied numerically. Different flow types associated with an increase in nozzle pressure ratio, corresponding wall pressure variation and shock patterns are studied. The effect of base pressure improvement with a secondary flow from the base (base bleed) of the truncated nozzle is also examined. Four base bleed points are considered, and the optimum bleed point is selected based on performance and base pressure improvement. The two-dimensional numerical model is solved using Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equations with the Transition SST turbulence model. Validation shows that the present model is good enough at predicting the flow features associated with a linear plug nozzle. From the three different flow types associated with this nozzle, the transition from one type to other happens at lower nozzle pressure ratios with truncation due to the reduction in length of the plug. Thrust coefficient increased by 3.54% in the case of the bleed 3 configuration with a secondary flow of 2% of inlet mass flow rate when compared with 40% plug length without base bleed.

Numerical investigation of second throat exhaust diffuser performance with thrust optimized parabolic nozzles

Free or restricted shock separation phenomena can occur inside a thrust optimized parabolic (TOP) nozzle during over-expanded operations. In the case of restricted shock separation, a cap shock pattern forms in the nozzle which leads to a substantial total pressure drop. This induces further related issues in the process of ground testing of such nozzles using a second throat exhaust diffuser (STED). In the present study, the flow physics in several TOP nozzles operating at over-expanded conditions is investigated numerically. At first, the strong effect of the initial expansion angle of a TOP nozzle on flow separation pattern and shock structure is demonstrated. Results reveal that for high initial expansion angles, restricted shock separation occurs even at low nozzle pressure ratios, while free shock separation takes place for small initial expansion angles at even high nozzle pressure ratios. Subsequently, the effect of separation patterns in TOP nozzles on the starting pressure of a STED is studied. Current results show that the presence of a restricted shock separation pattern leads to a considerable increment of the critical cross sectional area of the flow inside the diffuser. Therefore, the minimum starting pressure of the STED is increased up to 30% after the resizing of the second throat area to eliminate the flow choking inside it.

Computational study on reducing flow asymmetry in over-expanded planar nozzle by incorporating double divergence

Rocket nozzles accelerate combustion products or high pressure gases to supersonic/hypersonic velocities. The planar nozzles have rectangular cross-sections. At low altitude, the ambient pressure is higher than the exiting jet pressure, which leads to flow separation from the nozzle wall. In planar nozzles, asymmetric flow separation can be observed at low Nozzle Pressure Ratios. Asymmetric flow separation can lead to undesirable side forces. In the present study, numerical analysis is performed on the flow through planar nozzles. Nozzle geometries with different divergence angles and different double divergence having same area ratio are considered for flow analysis. The flow analysis is performed using commercial software ANSYS Fluent. All geometries are studied with similar boundary conditions. The numerical analysis is done on two-dimensional planar models. Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes, and Unsteady Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes equations are solved with realizable k-ε model turbulence model. The divergence angle of the nozzle having the same area ratio had a significant effect on the side load. It is found that as divergence angle increases the magnitude of side load decreases and flow becomes symmetry at low Nozzle Pressure Ratios. The design Mach number of the inner nozzle and extension length of double divergent nozzle is crucial for reducing the asymmetry of the flow. Shock reflection inside the nozzle due to discontinuity could be controlled by changing the divergence angle of the nozzle. The performance of the nozzle was seen to be augmented by introducing double divergence. The side load was profoundly affected by double divergence. It was also observed that, some double divergent nozzle had adverse side load. It was observed that asymmetry, unsteadiness, and side load of the flow was completely absent at inner nozzle having design Mach number of 1.3 for the double divergent nozzle having smaller extension length.

Experimental and numerical investigation of an axisymmetric divergent dual throat nozzle

The dual throat nozzle achieves higher thrust vectoring efficiencies and lesser thrust loss than other fluidic thrust-vectoring nozzles. Separation always occurs at the bottom of the cavity with complex three-dimensional characteristics for the dual throat nozzle. In this paper, by comparing the flow structure, nozzle surface static pressure distributions and skin friction lines, which are obtained by numerical simulations and wind tunnel experiments, an axisymmetric divergent dual throat nozzle is investigated in detail. The main results show the following findings. (1) The experimental schlieren photographs confirm again that the divergent nozzle configuration has the starting problem from an intuitive perspective. Meanwhile, the flow structure and nozzle surface static pressure distributions obtained by numerical simulations are consistent with the experimental results, except for the low nozzle pressure ratios. (2) The circumferential pressure difference is negligible upstream of the separation line but obvious downstream of the separation line. The skin friction lines and nozzle surface static pressure distributions of different circumferential angles obtained by experiments both prove that the actual flow in the axisymmetric divergent dual throat nozzle indeed possesses three-dimensional characteristics. Therefore, it is necessary to utilize the full three-dimensional computational domain to study the complex three-dimensional characteristics of the flow for the axisymmetric divergent dual throat nozzle thoroughly.

Experimental investigation of the effect of extended cowl on the flow field of planar plug nozzles

Plug and ramp nozzles offer many advantages over the conventional converging-diverging counterpart and have received much attention in the recent decades. Variants of plug nozzles have been investigated for a wide range of operating conditions. The performance of these nozzles is dependent on the flow development on the plug or ramp surface, which in turn is greatly influenced by the cowl geometry. Experiments are conducted to study the planar plug nozzle flowfield for Mach 1.8 and 2.2 using half nozzle geometry. The work primarily focuses on the influence of the cowl length on the flow evolution on the plug surface at different nozzle pressure ratios (NPRs). The cowl of the outer nozzle is extended to 10, 30, 50 and 100% of the full plug length. This allows the supersonic flow to partially expand internally ahead of the throat section. Schlieren images are used to visualize the wave structure at different pressure ratios for different cowl lengths. For low NPRs, the nozzle with extended cowl behaves more like a conventional planar nozzle with strong shock waves. It is observed that the cowl length influences the pressure distribution on the plug surface only for low NPRs. The effect of side walls on the flow field of planar plug nozzles is also studied.

Impinging jet noise reduction using non-circular jets

Experimental studies in the acoustic far field and flow visualization are carried out on circular and non-circular impinging jets at a nozzle to plate distance ratio of 5, for the nozzle pressure ratios of 1.8, 4, and 6. Spectra and directivity of the overall sound pressure level of circular jets are compared with those of non-circular jets for the same nozzle pressure ratios, at various emission angles. Non-circular jets mitigate the transonic impinging tones at around the critical pressure ratio, compared to the circular jet. Square jet is quieter at low nozzle pressure ratios by 5–8 dB compared to the circular jet. At higher under expansion conditions, the triangular and square jets almost completely eliminate the supersonic impinging tones. Elliptical jet is noisy at a nozzle pressure ratio of 6, even compared to the circular jet. Elliptical minor axis plane is quieter at lower nozzle pressure ratios compared to the major axis plane and the trend is reversed for the higher nozzle pressure ratios. Schlieren flow visualization studies reveal that the shock cell structures are weakened and symmetry of the shock cells are lost for the non-circular jets compared to the circular jet.

Shock oscillation in highly underexpanded jets**Project supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 11602028) and the Science and Technology Project of General Administration of Quality Supervision Inspection and Quarantine of China (Grant Nos. 2017QK119 and 2017QK188).

The oscillatory motions of shocks in highly underexpanded jets with nozzle pressure ratios of 5.60, 7.47, 9.34, and 11.21 are quantitatively studied by using large eddy simulation. Two types of shock oscillations are observed: one is the Mach disk oscillation in the streamwise direction and the other is the shock oscillation in the radial direction. It is found that the Mach disk moves quickly in the middle of the oscillatory region but slowly at the top or bottom boundaries. The oscillation cycles of Mach disk are the same for different cases, and are all dominated by an axisymmetric mode of 5.298 kHz. For the oscillation in the radial direction, the shocks oscillate more toward the jet centerline but less in the jet shear layer, and the oscillation magnitude is an increasing function of screech amplitude. The cycles of the radial shock oscillation switch randomly between the two screech frequencies for the first two cases. However, the oscillation periodicity is more complex for the jets with high nozzle pressure ratios of 9.34 and 11.21 than for the jets with the low nozzle pressure ratios of 5.6 and 7.47. In addition, the shock oscillation characteristics are also captured by coarse mesh and Smagorinsky model, but the coarse mesh tends to predict a slower and weaker shock oscillation.

Effects of passive grids on pipe and orifice jet noise

The present study investigates the effect of passive grids on the acoustic characteristics of pipe and orifice jets for different Nozzle Pressure Ratios (NPRs). A detailed blow-down and directivity studies have been carried out for various emission angles. To understand the distribution of acoustic radiations with frequency, the spectral analysis is performed. Additionally, the acoustic power is estimated in order to signify the effects of grids. The presence of grids influences the noise level depending on the operating ranges of NPRs. At low NPRs, the grids enhance the overall sound pressure level; mainly due to the turbulent mixing noise. Whereas, at high NPRs, a considerable noise reduction is observed. However, grids assist to shift the noise level from low frequency to high frequency for all ranges of NPR. The eddy fragmentation by the grids at low NPR results in shifting the low frequency noise to a high frequency. In general, at high NPRs the shock associated noise [screech and broadband shock associated noise (BSAN)] is dominant over the turbulent mixing noise. The presence of grids successfully eliminate the dominant tones (screech) by disrupting the feedback loop and attenuate the BSAN by converting strong shock cells into weaker multiple shock-lets.

Origin of flow asymmetry in planar nozzles with separation

An experimental investigation was conducted to study the mechanisms that lead to the origin of flow asymmetry in overexpanded planar nozzles, especially at low nozzle pressure ratios. Three Mach 2 planar nozzles with different divergent wall angles but same area-ratio were tested. For all three nozzles, a large portion of the dimensional pressure rise data across the separation shock shows the nature of boundary layer to be in the laminar/transitional state. Depending upon the local flow conditions, the flow can, therefore, experience either an early or a delayed separation on either wall. This can result in a free or a restricted shock separation condition on either wall which can initiate the beginning of flow asymmetry in nozzles at low nozzle pressure ratio. However, a higher nozzle wall angle was observed to prevent initiation of such a flow asymmetry. The present tests, therefore, indicate that in addition to the state of the boundary layer along the nozzle wall, the proximity of the separated shear layer to the nozzle walls also seems to play a dominant role in initiating conditions that favor the origin of flow asymmetry in nozzles. A significant drop in the shock unsteadiness levels was also indicated by increasing the wall angle.

Control of Operation Mode Transition in Dual-Bell Nozzles with Film Cooling

In addition to aspiration drag, the advantages gained by dual-bell nozzle utilization in practice are circumvented with a dip of thrust during operation mode transitions that occur outside of the optimal conditions. Practical transition from lowto high-altitude operationmode occurs at lower nozzle pressure ratios (NPRs) than the optimum transition point. The influence of the film-cooling flow on nozzle operationmode transition is investigated. It is found that the operationmode transitionNPR is increased, and the thrust dip during the transition is decreased through the injection of the film-cooling flow with an appropriate inlet pressure and flow rate.

Time-Frequency Analysis of Rocket Nozzle Wall Pressures during Start-up Transients

Surveys of the fluctuating wall pressure were conducted on a sub-scale, thrust-optimized parabolic nozzle in order to develop a physical intuition for its Fourier-azimuthal mode behavior during fixed and transient start-up conditions. These unsteady signatures are driven by shock wave turbulent boundary layer interactions which depend on the nozzle pressure ratio and nozzle geometry. The focus however, is on the degree of similarity between the spectral footprints of these modes obtained from transient start-ups as opposed to a sequence of fixed nozzle pressure ratio conditions. For the latter, statistically converged spectra are computed using conventional Fourier analyses techniques, whereas the former are investigated by way of time-frequency analysis. The findings suggest that at low nozzle pressure ratios –where the flow resides in a Free Shock Separation state– strong spectral similarities occur between fixed and transient conditions. Conversely, at higher nozzle pressure ratios –where the flow resides in Restricted Shock Separation– stark differences are observed between the fixed and transient conditions and depends greatly on the ramping rate of the transient period. And so, it appears that an understanding of the dynamics during transient start-up conditions cannot be furnished by a way of fixed flow analysis.

Effect of chevron count and penetration on the acoustic characteristics of chevron nozzles

Experimental investigations have been carried out on chevron nozzles to assess the importance of chevron parameters such as the number of chevrons (chevron count) and chevron penetration. Acoustic measurements such as overall sound pressure level, spectra, directivity, acoustic power, and broadband shock noise have been made over a range of nozzle pressure ratio from sub-critical to underexpansion levels. Shadowgraph images of the shock-cell structure of jets from various chevron nozzles have also been captured for different nozzle pressure ratios. The results indicate that a higher chevron count with a lower level of penetration yields the maximum noise suppression for low and medium nozzle pressure ratios. Of all the geometries studied, chevron nozzle with eight lobes and 0° penetration angle gives the maximum noise reduction. Chevron nozzles are found to be free from screech unlike regular nozzles. Acoustic power index has been calculated to quantitatively evaluate the performance of the various chevron nozzles. Chevron count is the pertinent parameter for noise reduction at low nozzle pressure ratios, whereas at high nozzle pressure ratios, chevron penetration is crucial. The results illustrate that by careful selection of chevron parameters substantial noise reduction can be achieved.

Experimental study of boundary layer separation in truncated ideal contour nozzles

DLR Lampoldshausen carried out a cold flow test series to study the boundary layer separation and the related flow field in a truncated ideal contour nozzle. A special focus was set on low nozzle pressure ratios to identify the origin of a locally re-attached flow condition that was detected in previous test campaigns. A convex shaped Mach disc was found for nozzle pressure ratios less than 10 and a slight concave one for nozzle pressure ratios more than 20. Due to boundary layer transition at low nozzle pressure ratios the convex Mach disc is temporary tilted and redirects the flow towards the nozzle wall. A simple separation criterion for turbulent nozzle flows is presented that fits well for both cold and hot flows. It is shown that the oblique separation shock recompresses the flow to 90% of the ambience. The separation zone of the presented film cooled nozzle is compared with a conventional one around 40% longer. Furthermore a relation between shear layer shape and forced side loads is described.

Numerical Investigation of the Flows in Cumulative Short-Plug Nozzles within the Framework of the Reynolds Equations

Numerical simulation is used to study the gasdynamics of annular cumulative nozzles. The class of nozzles considered includes those with a flat-ended plug and plugs of different length. The thrust performance of cumulative nozzles is determined over wide ranges of the nozzle pressure ratio and the specific heat ratio and the ranges on which the self-adjustment effect takes place are established. It is found that for low nozzle pressure ratios the cumulative nozzle with a flat-ended plug provides greater thrust than a finite-length plug nozzle optimal for operation in a vacuum.

Demonstration of Fluidic Throat Skewing for Thrust Vectoring in Structurally Fixed Nozzles

The experimental demonstration of a fluidic, multiaxis thrust vectoring (MATV) scheme is presented for a structurally fixed, afterburning nozzle referred to as the conformal fluidic nozzle (CFN). This concept for jet flow control features symmetric injection around the nozzle throat to provide throttling for jet area control, and asymmetric injection to subsonically skew the sonic plane for jet vectoring. The conceptual development of the CFN was presented in a companion paper (Miller et al. [1]). In that study, critical design variables were shown to be the flap length and expansion area ratio of the nozzle, and the location, angle, and distribution of injected flow. Measures of merit were vectoring capability, gross thrust coefficient, and discharge coefficient. A demonstration of MATV was conducted on a 20 percent scale CFN test article across a range of nozzle pressure ratios (NPR), injector flow rates, and flow distributions. Both yaw and pitch vector angles of greater than 8 deg were obtained at NPR of 5.5. Yaw vector angles greater than 10 deg were achieved at lower NPR. Values of thrust coefficient for the CFN generally exceeded published measurements of shock-based vectoring methods. In terms of vectoring effectiveness (ratio of vector angle to percent injected flow), fluidic throat skewing was found to be comparable to shock-based vectoring methods.