A Computational Study on the Unsteady Lateral Loads in a Rocket Nozzle

A numerical study of the unsteady flow in an over-expanded thrust optimized contour and compressed truncated perfect rocket nozzle is carried out in present paper. These rocket nozzles are subject to flow separation in transient phase at engine start-up and/or engine shut-down. The separation flow structures at different pressure ratios are observed. The start-up process exhibits two different shock structures such as FSS (Free Shock Separation) and RSS (Restricted Shock Separation). For a range of pressure ratios, hysteresis phenomenon occurs between these two separation patterns. A three-dimension compressible Navier-Stokes solver is used for the present study. One equation Spalart-Allmaras turbulence model is selected. The computed nozzle wall pressures show a good agreement with the experimental measurements. Present results have shown that present code can be used for the analysis of the transient flows in nozzle.