Flow Phenomena in Advanced Rocket Nozzles - The Plug Nozzle

G. Hagemann*, H. Immicht, M. Terhardt*

*DLR, Deutsches Zentrum fur Luft- und Raumfahrt, Space Propulsion

Lampoldshausen Research Centre, D-74239 Hardthausen a. K., Germany

^Dasa, Daimler-Benz Aerospace, Space Infrastructure,

Ottobrunn, D-81663 Munich, Germany

Abstract Abbreviations
In recent years, plug nozzles have gained a renewed ARPT Advanced Rocket Propulsion
interest in space business. In principle, this nozzle Technology Programme
concept offers a continuous altitude adaptation up to ESA • European Space Agency
its design pressure ratio. But, the flow adaptation FESTIP Future European Space Transpor-
achieved with this advanced rocket nozzle concept tation Investigations Programme
induces shocks and expansion waves resulting in exit SSTO single-stage-to-orbit
profiles far away from idealized one-dimensional flow
profiles, and inducing additional losses which may
lower the theoretically achievable performance under Introduction and Literature Review
idealized conditions by several percents. These flow Experimental, analytical and numerical research
phenomena observed in experiments and numerical on Aerospike- or plug nozzles has been performed
simulations of different altitude adaptive plug noz- since the 50's in the United States1"7, Russia8,
zles are highlighted and discussed in this paper. A Europe9"18 and Japan19. It has been proven that
numerical approach for plug nozzle flowfield simu- the Aerospike nozzle concept provides in principle a
lations is presented, which is based on the method continuous altitude adaptation up to its design pres-
of characteristics. First results obtained with this sure ratio. The name Aerospike was firstly given to
method are encouraging. Predicted flow topology the toroidal plug nozzle with a full length central
is well comparable with Schlieren images and wall body, due to its spike-form. Meanwhile, this name
pressure measurements of recent plug nozzle exper- is practically used for all plug nozzle concepts, even
iments performed in Europe. with truncated central plug bodies. The truncation
eliminates the huge length of the plug, and makes
this nozzle concept more feasible. Different design
Nomenclat ure approaches exist, including toroidal or linear plug
Symbols nozzles. The expansion might occur fully external,
CF thrust coefficient or could also be realized as a primary internal ex-
h height pansion followed by a further external expansion.
k coefficient Furthermore, the toroidal or linear thrust chamber
1 length and throat could be replaced by a cluster of nozzle
m mass flow rate modules, again either with a conventional bell-type
P pressure geometry, or with rectangular nozzle modules.
t width Nevertheless, additional losses are introduced by all
€ area ratio geometrical deviations from the ideal plug, and thus
e angle due to truncation and clustering. To get inside into
these different loss origins, research programmes on
Subscripts linear and circular clustered plug nozzles are cur-
a ambient rently performed in Europe. Within the frame of
b base area the ESA FESTIP Technology Programme sub-scale
c chamber cold gas tests of linear plug nozzles are being per-
max maximum formed by Dasa at the high speed wind tunnel of
w wall the Technical University of Dresden, see Ref. 10, 11.
Copyright ©1998 by the authors. Published by the American
Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc. with permission. 1
 interaction of comp.- /exp.-waves
with shear layer
shear layer
straight characteristic
(design Mach number)
shear layer .---,'-"--•""
barrel shock
expansion waves
straight characteristic
(design Mach number)
Figure 1: Flow phenomena of a plug nozzle with full length (left column) and truncated central
body (right column) at different pressure ratios pc/pa, off-design ( Pc/Pa < (pc/Pa)design top, pc/p a >
(Pc/Pa)design bottom) and design pressure ratio (center)
Experimental and numerical results gained by the
authors are used in the following to illustrate the
different flow phenomena observed in plug nozzles.
But it must be mentioned that despite of all former
research, this nozzle concept has not yet achieved
hardware application. This might change in the near
future, since a linear plug nozzle is chosen as part
of the propulsion system of the United States X-33
SSTO-demonstrator vehicle.
Flowfield analyses methods
Recently, numerical methods solving the Euler-
and Navier-Stokes equations have been success-
fully applied to the flowfield calculations of plug
nozzles7'10"14'17. It has been shown that base pres-
sures for truncated plug nozzles can be well pre-
dicted with Navier-Stokes solvers by a sufficient fine
resolution of the shear layers in the base region, and
thus of momentum exchange of the exhaust flow with
the recirculating base flow17. But a reliable base
interaction of comp.- /exp.-waves
.Xv with shear layer
open wake at ambient pressure
shear layer
trailing
shock
pressure prediction requires a strong mesh refine-
ment in the complete base region. To avoid an im-
mense number of grid points, a numerical approach
is presented in this paper which is used for the sim-
ulation of the inviscid supersonically expanding flow
along and behind the plug body, and is based on the
method of characteristics. The idea of this approach
is not new, and method of characteristics, still in use
for conventional rocket nozzles20, have been applied
to plug nozzles already in 60's, see e. g. Ref. 5. But
also for plug nozzles it is still of interest, as computa-
tional turn-a-round times are orders of magnitudes
lower compared to other numerical methods, and
therefore enables large parametrical studies. Fur-
thermore, by following the system of left- and right-
running characteristics* in the flowfield, all flow phe-
* Characteristics can be considered as propagation lines of
disturbances introduced in the flowfield. Expansion waves are
characterized by diverging characteristics of the same family
(e. g. right-running), whereas characteristics of compression
waves converge, or even cross each other, see e. g. Ref. 21.
 10"
B——HPc/pamb = 20
e—opjp^, = -\00
___________________
10'
0.0 0.2 °-4 °-6 °-8 1
-°
x-axis, length /1^
Figure 2: Calculated •wall pressure data of the FESTIP linear sub-scale plug nozzle at different
pressure ratios (left), and left- and right running characteristics in flowfield at two pressure ratios
(right), Pc/Pa = 8 (top) and pc/pa = 200 (bottom) (inviscid analysis with method of characteristics)
nomena in the inviscid core can be qualitatively illus-
trated. Flow regions strongly dominated by viscous
effects, as the base region, are modeled within this
method by analytical models. This approach has
been validated with other numerical schemes applied
for plug nozzle flowfield calculations14.
Mechanism of Altitude Adaptation
The full length contour of a plug nozzle, either for
a linear or a toroidal one, is designed for a given
expansion ratio or pressure ratio to generate an one-
dimensional exhaust flow profile. Straightforward
design methods for the full length plug body have
been proposed by Angelino1 or Lee2, and the con-
tour results as a streamline at the design pressure
ratio, cancelling out all expansion waves emanating
from the outer nozzle lip. For linear plug nozzles, the
full length contour follows from a simple Prandtl-
Meyer expansion centered at the outer throat lip2.
This most simple assumption is no longer valid for
toroidal plug nozzles, and the contour should be
designed with the more sophisticated method of
characteristics1. The application of the latter ap-
proach also has the advantage of taking account for
non-uniform inflow profiles in the throat region.
Figure 1 summarizes the principle flow phenom-
ena for plug nozzles with full length and truncated
central bodies at different off-design (top and bot-
tom) and design (center) pressure ratios, observed
in experiments and numerical simulations, see also
e. g. Ref. 10 - 12. For pressure ratios lower than
the design pressure ratio of a plug nozzle with well
contoured central body, the flow primarily expands
along the central plug body to the ambient pressure.
• nozzle throat with Mach number = 1.0
•free-jet boundary
.0 .1 .2 .3 .4 .5 .6 .7 .8 .9 . 1.0
x-jxis. length / 1OM
Thus, only the first part of the nozzle contour acts
as an expansion contour down to the point where
the first right running characteristic which feels the
ambient pressure meets the contour. When passing
this characteristic, the flow is adapted to the ambi-
ent pressure, and is inclined towards the centerline.
The further slope of the plug contour, designed as
clean expansion contour at its design pressure ra-
tio, deviates the uniform exhaust flow outwards, and
thereby generating compression waves which run to-
wards the outer free-stream shear layer. The in-
teraction of the compression waves with the shear
layer triggers a further expansion downstream, and
finally a system of recompression shocks and expan-
sion waves adapt the exhaust flow to the ambient
pressure. The characteristic barrel-like form with
several inflections of the shear layer results from
various interactions of compression and expansion
waves with the shear layer, and turbulent diffusion
enlarges the shear layer further downstream of the
throat. The evidence of the overexpansion and re-
compression processes is inferred from up- and down
variations of plug wall pressure profiles, observed in
various cold flow tests and numerical simulations.
In general, these wall pressure rises are not strong
enough to trigger flow separation in case of turbulent
boundary layers. Tests with steps, ramps, but also
with nozzles have shown that turbulent boundary
layers can withstand a pressure rise up to a factor
of w 3 without separating from the wall22.
At the design pressure ratio, see Fig. 1 (left column,
center), the characteristic with the design Mach
number should be a straight line emanating to the
tip of the central plug body, and the shear layer is

design data
chamber pressure PC 8.75 bar
driving gas air
mass flow rate m 5.95 kg/s
design pressure ratio PC /Pa 200
geom. area ratio e 12.65
plug width t 0.214 m
plug height h 0.192 m
Table 1: Design parameters of linear sub-scale
plug nozzle, tested within the FESTIP-study
parallel to the centerline.
At pressure ratios above the design pressure ratio,
the wall pressure distribution remains constant, and
the plug nozzle behaves as a conventional nozzle, the
loss of its capability of further altitude adaptation
included. Figure 1 (left column, bottom) shows the
flowfield at higher pressure ratios.
To illustrate again the flowfield and wall pressure de-
velopment of a full-length plug nozzle, Fig. 2 shows
the system of left- and right-running characteristics
at two pressure ratios, design and off-design. The
design parameters of this plug nozzle are included
in Table 1. The data correspond to the FESTIP lin-
ear sub-scale plug nozzle. But within the FESTIP
study, only truncated configurations were tested as
shown in Fig. 3. The plug contour was designed
with the method of Angelina1, and then truncated
at three different plug lengths, as 5%, 20% and 40%
of its ideal length.
At its design pressure ratio p c /p a = 200, the shear
40% plug
Figure 3: FESTIP linear sub-scale plug nozzle
layer is parallel to the centerline, and all one-family
characteristics .downstream of the design character-
istic, either left- or right-running, are also parallel,
indicating uniform exhaust flow. At off-design con-
dition, e. g. Pc/Pa = 8, the system of recompression
waves and expansion waves adapt the supersonic ex-
haust flow to the ambient pressure, see Fig. 2. Cal-
culated wall pressures featuring the typical up- and
down variations due to the pressure adaptation are
also shown in Fig. 2. But it must be mentioned that
the wall pressure calculation performed with the in-
viscid method of characteristics cannot account for
viscous, dissipative effects, and that the amplitudes
of the up- and down variations are therefore slightly
overpredicted14.
Effect of Truncation
The truncation of the central plug body, advanta-
geous due to the huge ideal length of the well con-
toured body, results in a different flow and perfor-
mance behaviour compared to the full length plug.
At lower pressure ratios an open wake flow estab-
lishes, with a pressure level practically equal to the
ambient pressure (Fig. 1, right column, top). At a
certain pressure ratio close to the design pressure
ratio of the full length plug nozzle, the base flow
suddenly changes its character and turns over to
- sonic inflow, throat
• compression
• expansion
lip shock
at this point,
x = 0.006 m,
wall pressure is first oundary
adapted to ambient pressure,
see also Fig. 8
Figure 4: Characteristics (top) and Schlieren-
image (bottom), FESTIP linear plug nozzle with
20% plug, pressure ratio pc/pa = 4.2
 sonic inflow, throat sonic inflow, throat
expanding flow region
expanding flow region
compression waves free-jet boundary

free-jet boundary
at this point, x = 0.02m, at this point, x = 0.07 m,
plug wall pressure is first plug wall pressure is first
adapted to ambient pressure, adapted to ambient pressure
see also Fig. 8
homogeneous flow
(straight shear layer, and
compression waves characteristics are parallel) weak expansion wave:

Figure 5: Left- and right-running characteristics Figure 6: Left- and right-running characteristics
(top) and Schlieren-image (bottom), FESTIP lin- (top) and Schlieren-image (bottom), FESTIP lin-
ear plug nozzle, pressure ratio Pc/Pa = 10.4 ear plug nozzle, pressure ratio pc/pa = 33.5

the closed form, characterized by a constant base -sonic inflow, throat

pressure that is no longer influenced by the ambient expanding flow region
pressure. Analyses indicated that shorter plug bod- free-jet boundary
ies with higher truncations trigger an earlier change
in wake flow at pressure ratios below the design
pressure ratio. At the transition point the pressure
within the wake approaches a value which is below plug wall pressure no
ambient pressure, and the full base area induces a longer influenced by
ambient pressure
negative thrust (Fig. 1, right column, center). This
expansion waves meet the
thrust loss depends on the percentage of truncation shear layer, compression
and the total size of the base area. Published exper- waves are induced
imental data and numerical simulations revealed an
increasing thrust loss for shorter plug bodies, since
the total base area increases.
Beyond the pressure ratio at transition, the pressure
within the closed wake remains constant. A further
decrease of the ambient pressure is resulting there-
fore in a positive thrust contribution of the total base
area.
For 20%-plug body tested within the FESTIP study,
see Fig. 3, Schlieren images and the system of left-
and right-running characteristics at four pressure ra- Figure 7: Left- and right-running characteristics
tios are shown in Figs. 4 - 7 . At these four pres- (top) and Schlieren-image (bottom), FESTIP lin-
sure ratios, an open wake flow is observed with a ear plug nozzle, pressure ratio p c /pa = 56.5
base pressure practically equal to the ambient pres-
sure. Results of the inviscid method of characteris- At the lowest pressure ratio p c /p a = 4.2 (Fig. 4),
tics compare well with the Schlieren images. Differ- a lip shock is centered at the end of the plug body,
ent flow phenomena are emphasized in the Figures. due to a higher base pressure than the upstream
 0.7
0.6 t j
>0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0 0.02 0.04
x-axis, length / [m]
Figure 8: Wall pressure data of linear sub-scale
plug nozzle at different pressure ratios (moc: in-
viscid analysis with method of characteristics;
exp: experiment)
- sonic inflow, throat
uniform flow
trace of last right-running
characteristic emanating
from the throat
Figure 9: Left- and right-running characteristics
in flowfield at pressure ratios pc/pamb ~ 60, near
wake transition
wall pressure. At the pressure ratios p c /p a = 10.4
and 56.5, upstream wall pressures are higher than
the base pressure, and an expansion fan accelerates
the flow to the base pressure. At the intermedi-
ate pressure ratio p c /p a = 33.5 (Fig. 6), the plug
end wall pressure and ambient pressure are almost
equal, and only a very weak expansion is observed.
Therefore, the lower shear layer separating the base
flow and the supersonic exhaust flow has almost the
same slope as the contour at its truncation. Corre-
sponding wall pressures are shown in Fig. 8 which
compare very well with computed wall pressure data
presented in Ref. 11 and 12. Thus, the formation
of an expansion wave or a lip shock at the end tip
strongly depends on the pressure difference between
upstream wall pressure and base pressure. During
open wake conditions both phenomena may occur,
whereas for closed wake conditions the base pressure
is always lower than the upstream wall pressure.
The closing of the wake can be determined with the
p/pa = 4.2 (moc)
- pjp, = 10.5 (moc)
method of characteristic by tracing the last right-
- P/P. = 33.5 (moc) running characteristic emanating from the sonic
P</P, = 56.5 (moc) throat towards the centerline. The transition occurs
0Pc/pa = 33.5(exp.)
when this characteristic meets the point on the lower
shear layer in the wake of the plug, where the trail-
ing shock is induced, as shown in Fig. 9 (the calcu-
lation procedure with the method of characteristics
is terminated as new calculated points along charac-
teristics fall beyond the trailing shock. Its trace is
calculated with the oblique shock equations and the
known flowfield conditions). For reliable transition
predictions, an analytical model is required either
for the wake radius, see Fig. 9, or for the base pres-
0.06 0.08 sure itself. For the wake radius dependence on the
inviscid Mach number at the plug tip, an empiri-
cal relationship published in Ref. 6 is used. In the
work of Fzcfc18, an overview on different base pres-
sure models and its accuracy is given, and based on
this analysis an analytical base pressure model orig-
inally proposed in Ref. 4 was selected as alternative:
CF,max,l-D — Cp.core
Pb = k-
free-jet boundary
trailing shock
with the ideal thrust coefficient CF,max,i-D at the
nozzle design pressure ratio, its real thrust contri-
bution of the profiled plug part without base area
denoted cp.core, the ratio of base to throat area e^,
and an empirical coefficient k = 0.648, see Ref. 18
for further details.
Base pressures during open wake conditions can be
influenced by base bleed injection. This has not yet
been investigated within the frame of the FESTIP
research, but former experiments have shown that a
small amount of bleed gas expanded into the base
region slightly increases base pressures during open
wake conditions, and thus has a positive influence
on the plug nozzle efficiency3. The net gain in per-
formance not only depends on the amount of bleed
gas, as for higher bleed gas mass flow rates even a de-
crease was observed, but also on the geometric form
of the injection orifices, see e. g. Ref. 3 for further
comparisons.
Lip Shock
It has been mentioned above that the lip shock for-
mation strongly depends on the pressure difference
of lip wall pressure to base pressure. But even for
lower base pressures, compression waves are induced
due to viscous effects not considered in the presented
inviscid analyses. Due to the finite boundary layer
thickness, the supersonic flow near the tip fails to ne-
gotiate the plug corner, and overexpands to a pres-
sure slightly below the base pressure5. This is also
 expanding flow expansion fan
lip shock
plug body / sonic line
* -~, -*^
0 -,.;_,,.
vnrtp.x "* ~ _ *
shear layer
Figure 10: Flow conditions near end of plug body
driven by a small viscous vortex centered at the tip
in the base. The subsequent recompression of the
flow to the base pressure induces compression waves
contributing to the generation of the lip shock, even
in case of an expansion fan centered at the tip. But
is has been pointed out by the research of Mueller et
a/.5 that due to turbulent boundary layers, the lip
shock is barely visible, as it is also the case in the
Figs. 5 - 7.
Barrel Shock or Bow Shock
The generation of the barrel- or bow shock is quite
similar to the lip shock. The finite boundary layer
thickness and a small viscous recirculation zone lo-
cated at the upper nozzle exit drives a flow expan-
sion to pressures lower than the ambient pressure.
Depending on its strength, the subsequent recom-
pression to the ambient pressure induces compres-
sion waves which coalesce to the barrel shock, as
shown in Fig. 11. Furtherly, the underexpansion of
,,---- shear layer
\ sion are shown in Fig. 13 and 14. In principle, a
barrel- or bow shock
expansion fan
design characteristic
liZ""1"—• sonic line
77-
Figure 11: Flow conditions at the exit of the in-
ternal expansion nozzle
the exhaust flow for pressure ratios below the design
pressure ratio accelerates the flow upwards, gener-
ating expansion waves which emanate towards the
constant pressure shear layer. At the shear layer, the
expansion waves are reflected as compression waves
contributing to the barrel shock, see also Fig. 12.
In case of an internal expansion nozzle, further left-
running expansion waves emanating from the inter-
underexpanded flow,
expansions waves emanate
towards free-jet boundary.
Figure 12: Left- and right-running characteristics
near throat exit, inviscid analysis of an underex-
panding nozzle flow, FESTIP sub-scale model 1
nozzle
nal nozzle to the constant pressure shear layer also
contribute to the formation of the barrel shock12.
Influence of Plug Contour
The model 1 tested within the FESTIP programme
was a purely external expansion nozzle. After pass-
ing the linear throat the flow expands directly onto
the plug surface. For nozzles with higher design
Mach numbers, this approach becomes unfeasible,
because the throat and the thrust chamber must be
inclined with the tilt-angle 0 following the Prandtl-
Meyer relations. For the design Mach number of
the FESTIP nozzle, M = 4.23, a tilt-angle of Q =
—67.84° is required. An internal expansion up to a
certain Mach number reduces this tilt-angle signifi-
cantly. For the FESTIP model 2, an internal expan-
sion to M = 2.84 was chosen10, and thereby reducing
the tilt-angle of the nozzle modules to 0 = -21.81°.
Different contour approaches for the internal expan-
non-symmetrical primary nozzle could be used to ac-
celerate the flow to the desired uniform primary exit
Mach number, see Fig. 14. In case of a symmetri-
cal, bell-shaped nozzle, a wind-tunnel contour could
be used, which of course would be very long. Both
methods would be straightforward, and the last part
of the external expansion contour is equal to the
ideal one, see Fig. 13.
For the FESTIP model 2, a conventional bell-type
was chosen as internal expansion nozzle. But with
this bell-shaped linear nozzle the definition of the
plug contour following the expansion after the exit of
the bell nozzle by assuming a simple Prandtl-Meyer
expansion at the outer lip is no longer straightfor-
ward due to inhomogeneous flow distribution in the
exit of the bell-shaped module. A contour design
 .0.11

0.1 ^r jdeal nozzle, FESTIP model 1

--- ideal nozzle, int.-ext. exp.
0.09 -- FESTIP model2
0.08

_ 0.07
E
" 0.06
tn
! 0.05
CO
"• 0.04

0.03

0.02

0.01

-0.1 0 0.1 0.2 0.3 0.4 0.5

x-axis, length / [m]
Figure 13: Different plug nozzle contours, full
Figure 15: Schlieren-image, FESTIP linear plug
length plug
nozzle with 34% plug, model 2, pressure ratio
0.11
Pc/Pa = 9.4
0.1
•gf 0.09
" 0.08
.1 0.07
2 0.06 —— ideal nozzle. FESTIP model 1
— - - ideal nozzle, int.-ext. exp.
0.05 — - - FESTIP model 2
0.04
-0.09 -0.06 -0.03 0 0.03 0.06
x-axis, length / [m]
Figure 14: Different plug nozzle contours, throat
region

method using the method of characteristics would

be needed to account for the inhomogeneous exhaust
flow, resulting in a partly wavy-like plug contour.
For the model 2, an approximative design method
was chosen for the contour definition. In a first step
an equivalent linear plug contour without internal
expansion (i. e. similar to the model 1 contour) was
defined by application of the method of Angelina1.
This contour was matched to the bell-shaped mod-
ule outlet by requiring the same (ID-) Mach number
at the position of the module outlet. In a next step
this contour had to be modified slightly to adapt it
to the divergence angle of the module10.
Figures 15 and 16 show Schlieren-images of the ex-
haust flow at off-design pressure ratios p c /p a = 9.4
and 68. At the outer exit of the inner nozzle, a bow
shock is generated penetrating towards the plug con-
tour. Both, the bow shock and the non-optimized
contour trigger flow separation for the lower pres-
sure ratio. But also at higher pressure ratios with
no further influence of the ambiance on wall pressure
distribution as shown in Fig. 16, wall pressure profile
is far away from an ideal profile, and the inhomoge-
neous exhaust flow together with the internal shock
induced in the throat region of the nozzle module re-
Figure 16: Schlieren-image, FESTIP linear plug
nozzle with 34% plug, model 2, pressure ratio
Pc/Pa = 68
suit in a wall pressure rise near the end of the plug
body. Further details and analyses are presented in
Ref. 10 - 12. These undesired results stresses the
importance of well designed plug nozzles with ap-
propriate methods.
This importance is also stressed from results ob-
tained with most simple, conical or ramp-like central
plug bodies, for circular of planar configurations re-
spectively. Hot-run test with a truncated, toroidal
sub-scale plug nozzle performed at DLR in 1970 re-
vealed also flow separation from a conical plug body
before reaching its truncated end13. In addition, re-
cent results on experiments with plug nozzles pub-
lished by Tomita et a/.19 also featured flow separa-
tion from the central plug body for conical contours.
Reason for this undesired flow separation is that

Figure 17: Multi-dimensional flow effects in clustered plug nozzles
conical contours do not delete the expansion waves
which emanate from the outer nozzle lip towards the
contour. As result, the expansion waves are reflected
and the flow overexpands along the conical plug con-
tour, and finally separates at a certain pressure ratio
p w /pa as observed for conventional overexpanding
nozzles. Figure 18 illustrates this flow behaviour,
which may occur for pressure ratios below the de-
sign pressure ratio.
For linear plug nozzles, special attention must be
addressed to the influence of both end sides, from
where the ambiance disturbs the expanding flow-
field resulting in an expansion of the flow normal
to the main flow direction and therefore inducing an
effective performance loss. Especially for truncated
plug nozzles, the change of wake flow behaviour may
strongly be influenced by the penetration of ambi-
expansion fan compression waves are induced where
expansionjvaves meet the free-jet boundary
""•^-..T— jet boundary
shock
flow separation due
to overexpansion
of the exhaust flow
jet boundary
Figure 18: Influence of plug contour on flowfield
development
free shear layer
above plug body
obligue shock in
central cross section
of a module
traces of oblique shocks
on plug body
trace of shear lay
on plug body
ent pressures through both end sides. End plates,
as foreseen for the linear plug nozzle of the X-33
demonstrator vehicle, could be used to avoid this
ambient pressure penetration.
Flow Effects due to Clustering
The above discussed plug nozzles with toroidal or
linear thrust chambers and throats have inherent
disadvantages regarding
• control of constant throat gap during manu-
facturing and thermal expansion (—» side-loads,
thrust vector deviations),
• cooling of toroidal or linear throat with tiny
throat gaps,
• control of combustion instabilities in the
toroidal or linear combustion chamber.
These disadvantages can be avoided by replacing the
toroidal or linear thrust chamber by several modules,
either with circular or rectangular exits. However,
clustering induces additional performance losses,
which may rise up to a few percent, due to exhaust
gas interactions of adjacent module nozzles. These
flow interactions result in a quite different flowfield
structure when being compared with toroidal or lin-
ear plug nozzles. Additional shocks are induced
which influence the complete flowfield. Figure 17
emphasize the essential flow phenomena observed in
experiments and numerical simulations14'17'19. Ex-
tensive experimental and numerical research on clus-
tered plug nozzles with different geometrical con-
ambient pressure. pa = 22 mbar
figurations is currently performed within the ESA
ARPT Programme in Europe15"17.

Influence of Ambient Flow

The performance of circular or linear plug nozzles is
adversely affected by the external air stream flow,
i.e. the aspiration effect of the external flow reduces
slightly performance, see e. g. Ref. 3. Additional per-
formance losses depend on the shape of the launchers
tail and on the integration of the plug nozzle. The
loss due to the shape of the launchers tail is named
boattail drag3. Additionally, the external flow re-
duces the pressure in the recirculation zone formed
above the nozzle exit in the tail of the launcher, and
this pressure drop results in the lip drag. Boattail-
and lip drag causes performance losses during noz- ambient pressure, pa = 22 mbar
zle operation at any pressure ratios. Furthermore,
the exhaust gas adapts to the reduced lip pressure
rather than ambient pressure, which results in an
additional overexpansion loss at pressure ratios be-
low design pressure ratio, and also favors an earlier
wake flow closure for truncated plug nozzles. Cold-
flow tests showed that the effect of external flow on
performance is confined to only a narrow range of ex-
ternal flow speeds with Mach numbers nearly unity, Figure 20: Pressure isolines above exit of internal
with performance losses in the range of one to two expansion nozzle, with (top) and without exter-
percent3. nal flow (bottom). Pressure interval 3.0 mbar <
Figure 19 illustrates the flowfield of an internal / ex- p < 23.0 mbar, Ap = 0.5 mbar
ternal expansion sub-scale plug nozzle at its design
pressure ratio with and without slightly supersonic at the nozzle tip, and the stronger barrel shock for
ambient flow. It can be seen that both flowfields are the ambient flow case. The latter is induced due to
in principle similar, except of the recirculation zone the reduced pressures in the recirculation zone. Fig-
ure 20 shows the corresponding static pressure iso-
lines above the exit of the internal expansion nozzle,
both with and without external flow. Assumed am-
bient pressure in both simulations is pa = 22 mbar.
The external flow reduces the lip pressure in the re-
circulation zone to pnp w 5 mbar, and thus to a
pressure significantly lower than the ambient pres-
recirculation zone with sure. This pressure drop causes the lip drag, and
reduced static pressure,
induces overexpansion of drives the already above discussed overexpansion of
the exhaust flow
the exhaust flow. For this configuration, a degra-
dation in performance of-1.2% is calculated, which
compares well with experimental data published in
Ref. 3.

Conclusion
Former and actual research on different types of
plug nozzles, including linear, toroidal, and clus-
Figure 19: Effect of ambient flow tered nozzle configurations have shown that their

10
altitude compensation capability for higher ambi-
ent pressures at pressure ratios below their design
pressure ratio is indisputable, but they lose this ca-
pability for pressure ratios above the design pres-
sure ratio. Compared to an ideal expansion, addi-
tional performance losses are induced in this noz-
zle concepts, mainly due to non-isentropic effects
like shock-waves, which adapt the exhaust flow to
the ambient pressure for higher ambient pressures.
Furthermore, truncation and clustering, making this
nozzle concept more feasible than the ideal, full
length nozzle, results in further performance losses.
Flowfield phenomena for truncated linear plug noz-
zles observed in sub-scale experiments compare well
with predicted flow structures calculated with a nu-
merical scheme based on the method of characteris-
tics. Different pressure ratios were chosen to high-
light essential flow phenomena. The closing of the
wake, and thus the transition from open wake to
the closed wake form can also be predicted with the
method of characteristics by tracing the last char-
acteristic emanating from the outer nozzle lip which
adapts the expanding exhaust flow to the ambiance.
Ambient flow also slightly degradates performance.
All these additional losses may rise up to several
percent, depending on the nozzle geometry. Due to
these losses, plug nozzles perform worse at high al-
titude than do conventional bell nozzles with equal
geometrical area ratios. Therefore, to get highest
benefit with this nozzle concept, the design pressure
ratio and thus the geometrical area ratio should be
chosen as high as possible, as it could be realized
with large launcher tail areas and/or high thrust
chamber pressures.
In addition to having excellent capabilities for al-
titude compensation, plug nozzles have further ad-
vantages, including ease in vehicle and engine inte-
gration. Other technical issues must be especially
addressed, like weight, cost, design, thermal man-
agement, manufacturing, system performance, reli-
ability, but also solutions for thrust vector control
as gimbaling of the plug is unfeasible. Since loss ef-
fects for plug nozzles also depend on its integration,
e. g. due to ambient flow, plug nozzles must always
be considered within a combined analysis with the
launcher system itself.
References
[1] Angelino, G., "Theoretical and Experimental
Investigations of the Design and Performance
of a Plug Type Nozzle", NASA TN-12, July
1963
11
[2] Lee, C. C., "Fortran Programs for Plug Nozzle
Design", NASA TN R-41, March 1963
[3] Wasko, R. A., "Performance of Annular Plug
and Expansion-Deflection Nozzles including
External Flow Effects at Transonic Mach Num-
bers", NASA TN D-4462, April 1968
[4] Sobin, A. J., "Aerospike Engine Performance
Calculation Procedure", North American Avi-
ation, Inc., Internal Letter LAP 86-100 (RC),
March 1968
[5] Mueller, T. J., Sule, W. P., Fanning, A. E., Giel,
T. V., and Galanga, F. L., "Analytical and Ex-
perimental Study of Axisymmetric Truncated
Plug Nozzle Flowfields", UNDAS TN-601-FR-
10, University of Notre Dame, Notre Dame, In-
diana, September 1972
[6] Gross, G. W., "Performance Analysis of
Aerospike Rocket Engines", NASA STAR Tech-
nical Report Issue 3, NASA Marshall Space
Flight Center, 1973
[7] Ruf, J. H., and McConnaughey, P. K., "A
Numerical Analysis of a Three-Dimensional
Aerospike" AIAA 97-3217, July 1997
[8] Dumnov, G. E., Nikulin, G. Z., and Pono-
maryov, N. B., "Investigation of Advanced Noz-
zles for Rocket Engines" (published in Russian),
Space Rocket Engines and Power Plants, Vol.4
(142), NIITP, 1993
[9] Manski, D., "Clustered Plug Nozzles for Future
European Reusable Rocket Launchers" (pub-
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Lampoldshausen, Mai 1981
[10] Immich, H., and Caporicci, M., "FESTIP Tech-
nology Developments in Liquid Rocket Propul-
sion for Reusable Launch Vehicles", AIAA 96-
3113, July 1996
[11] Immich, H., and Caporicci, M., "Status of the
FESTIP Rocket Propulsion Technology Pro-
gram", AIAA 97-3311, July 1997
[12] Nasuti, F., and Onofri, M., "A Methodology
to Solve Flowfields of Plug Nozzles for Future
Launchers", AIAA 97-2941, July 1997
[13] Rommel, Th., Hagemann, G., Schley, C.-
A., Manski, D., and Krulle, G., "Plug Noz-
zle Flowfield Analysis", Journal of Propul-
sion and Power, Vol. 13, No. 6, pp. 629-634,
Sept. Oct. 1997
[14] Hagemann, G., "Clustered Plug Nozzle Flow-
field Simulations - Report ARPT WP 4100",
DLR-IB 645-97/8, DLR Lampoldshausen, April
1997
[15] "ARPT - Advanced Rocket Propulsion Tech-
nology Program, Final Report Phase 1", ESA-
ESTEC, Noordwijk, Netherlands, 1994
[16] "ARPT - Advanced Rocket Propulsion Tech-
nology Program, Final Report Phase 2", ESA-
ESTEC, Noordwijk, Netherlands, 1996
[17] "ARPT - Advanced Rocket Propulsion Tech-
nology Program, Final Report Phase 3", ESA-
ESTEC, Noordwijk, Netherlands, 1998
[18] Pick, M., "Considerations of the Performance
Potential for Clustered Plug Nozzles" (pub-
lished in German), Herbert Utz Publishing
Company, Munich, 1997
[19] Tomita, T., Tamura, H., and Takahashi, M.,
"An Experimental Evaluation of Plug Nozzle
Flow Field", AIAA 96-2632, July 1996
[20] Nickerson, G. R. , Dang, L. D., and Coats,
D. E., "TDK - Two-Dimensional Kinetic Refer-
ence Computer Program", NAS 8-35931, NASA
Marshall Space Flight Center, April 1985
[21] Zucrow, M. J., and Hoifman, J. D., "Gas Dy-
namics, Vol. 1 and 2", John Wiley and Sons,
1977
[22] Frey, M. , and Hagemann, G., "Status of
Flow Separation Prediction in Rocket Nozzles',
AIAA 98-3619, July 1998

12