Numerical study of an aerospike nozzle in retropropulsion

Abstract

The primary motivation of this numerical study is to explore the feasibility of drag enhancement using aerospike nozzle for retropropulsion in hypersonic flow. An external expansion contoured aerospike nozzle with design Mach 3.0 have been attached to a 140◦ spherical cone re-entry body shape for retropropulsion. The two-dimensional axi-symmetric unsteady RANS numerical simulations are performed in freestream flow of hypersonic Mach number 7 using SU2 code. In order to compare the performance of the aerospike nozzle with circular and annular counter-flow jets, the exits of the annular nozzle and the circular nozzle have been modelled on the 140◦ spherical cone body as well. All three nozzles are simulated with mass flow condition equivalent to thrust coefficient 1. It was found that aerospike nozzle in retropropulsion provides a +28.4% drag enhancement (with respect to blunt nose without retropropulsion) due to it’s contoured surface compared to +2.6% of annular and minute drag reduction for circular nozzle counter-flow jet.