Numerical Experiment of Aeroelastic Stability for a Rocket Nozzle
Publication: Journal of Aerospace Engineering
Volume 30, Issue 5
Abstract
The development of new rocket engine nozzles for launch vehicles encounters a challenging design problem: to meet nozzle performance for high altitude, the nozzle expansion ratios are designed by high value; however, these would lead to overexpanded flow conditions at ground. These conditions in turn generate unsteady internal flow separation. The resulting asymmetries result in side loads, which can potentially damage not only the nozzle but also the entire launch system. The occurrence of excessive side loads in nozzles is one of the most important issues to consider in designing efficient, reusable, and robust launch vehicles. In this work, a fully coupled method using Navier–Stokes simulations is used to numerically investigate the aeroelastic stability for the J-2S rocket nozzle by varying either the material properties or the thickness of nozzle walls. This fully coupled method consists of the following: (1) a flow solver to simulate the flow field, (2) a structural solver to compute the structural dynamic response, (3) a computational mesh dynamics solver to accomplish the deformation of the fluid dynamics grid, and (4) a coupling technique to swap forces and displacements across the fluid–solid interface. It is found that the wall material properties and the wall thickness have tremendous effects on the aeroelastic behavior of rocket nozzles. Thus, the interaction between the shock-encompassed flow inside the rocket nozzle and the rocket nozzle structure has to be considered for the design of rocket engines.
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Published In
Journal of Aerospace Engineering
Volume 30 • Issue 5 • September 2017
Copyright
©2017 American Society of Civil Engineers.
History
Received: Aug 9, 2016
Accepted: Feb 3, 2017
Published online: May 27, 2017
Published in print: Sep 1, 2017
Discussion open until: Oct 27, 2017
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