PARAMETRIC STUDY ON A METHOD FOR SOLVING FLOW

SEPARATION IN ROCKET NOZZLES

ABSTRACT
Large area ratio convergent-divergent (CD) nozzle is commonly
used in rocket propulsion in high altitude. But it cannot be used in
atmospheric regimes due to loss of efficiency and expected side
loads caused by flow separation when the exit static pressure is less
than 0.4 times the atmospheric pressure (Somerfield Criteria). If
somehow, the flow separation issue can be avoided in low altitudes,
high area ratio nozzles can be used for a long duration of rocket
operation. Employing such a large area ratio nozzle in high altitude
can increase the specific impulse of rocket.
Effect of the flow separation phenomenon can be reduced to a
certain extent by introducing a secondary nozzle flow at nozzle exit
of primary nozzle preventing the entry of atmospheric air into the
separation zone (Entrainment Effect). This project focuses on the
design and study of this particular method for solving flow
separation in rockets nozzles through computational methods.

STAFF GUIDE: Dr. Raj Kumar, Associate Professor, CET

Shri. Fazil Mohammed, Scientist, VSSC

TEAM: Sreerag VN
Vishnu Nandan
Anurag Pramod

REFERENCE
1. C.Y. Allamaprabhu, B.N. Raghunandan, J.A. Morigo, Improved
prediction of flow separation in thrust optimized parabolic
nozzles with FLUENT, AIAA 2011-5689, 2011.
2. J. stlund, Flow processes in rocket engine nozzles with focus
on flow sep-aration and side-loads, Ph.D. thesis, Royal Institute
of Technology, Stockholm, 2002.
3. S.B. Verma, O. Haidn, Study of restricted shock separation
phenomena in a thrust optimized parabolic nozzle, J.Propuls.
Power 25(5) (2009) 10461057.
4. Luca Boccaletto, Solving the flow separation issue: a new
nozzle concept, AIAA 2008-5234, 2008

CET MECHANICAL ENGINEERING DEPT.