An Experimental Study of the Trust Vector Control Using Counterflow Concept

Recently, fluidic thrust vectoring methods have been preferably employed to control the movement of propulsive systems due to relatively simpler design and lower cost than mechanical thrust vectoring methods. For An application of the thrust vectoring to flight bodies, it is necessary to understand very complicated exhaust flows which are often subject to shock waves and boundary layer separation. But researches for the thrust vector control using counterflow have been few. In the present study, experiments have been performed to investigate the characteristics of supersonic jets controlled by a thrust vectoring method using counterflow. The primary jet is expanded through a two-dimensional primary nozzle shrouded by collars, and is deflected by the suction of the air near nozzle into an upper slot placed between the primary nozzle and the upper collar. A shadowgraph method is used to visualize the supersonic jet flowfields. Primary nozzle pressure ratios and suction nozzle pressure ratios are varied from 3.0 to 5.0, and from 0.2 to 1.0 respectively. The present experimental results showed that, for a given primary nozzle pressure ratio, a decrease in the suction nozzle pressure ratio produced an increased thrust vector angle. As the suction nozzle pressure ratios were increased and decreased, the hysteresis of the thrust vectoring was observed through the wall pressure distributions