Proceedings of 4th Asian Joint Workshop on Thermophysics and Fluid Science Oct.

14 ~ 17, 2012, Busan, Korea

Theoretical Study on Dual bell Nozzle for Future SSTO Missions

A.Jayashree *, K.S.Bijukumar* , P.Balachandran* , G.Rajesh+ and Raju K. George

* +

Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre, Valiamala, Thiruvananthapuram- 695547, India Indian Institute of Space Science & Technology, Thiruvananthapuram- 695547, India

Abstract For maximizing the payload of future launch vehicles especially SSTO (single stage to orbit) launchers, usage of altitude-compensating nozzles are mandatory. There are different nozzle concepts with improvements in performance as compared to conventional nozzles achieved by altitude adaptation and thus by minimizing losses caused by over or under expansion. Dual bell nozzle is one of the most promising choice among the new nozzle concepts. It has a base nozzle and an extension nozzle connected at the wall inflection where a forced steady and symmetrical separation takes place at low altitudes. The wall inflection point therefore acts as an effective nozzle exit with a small nozzle area ratio at low altitudes. At high altitudes, nozzle flow is attached to the wall through the extension nozzle exit, thereby providing the use of the full area ratio. Various studies have been done by other nations on dual-bell nozzle concerning transition, design of dual-bell nozzle and impulse gain obtained from dual-bell nozzle. However a clear understanding of the role of profile in the flow transition is lacking. The present study brings out the theretical estimations of a dual bell nozzle perfromance parmeters for a liquid rocket application .

Key Words: Liquid rocket engine, Dual bell nozzle, Method of Characteristics (MOC)

Introduction
The reduction of Earth-to-orbit launch costs along with an increase in launcher reliability and operational efficiency are the key demands on future space transportation systems, like single stage to orbit vehicles (SSTO).The realisation of these vehicles strongly depends on the performance of the engines, which should deliver high performance with low system complexity. Engines of launcher first stages operate in a varying pressure environment from sea level to nearly vacuum conditions. The main engine starts at sea level and continues functioning up to almost vacuum conditions. To avoid flow separation phenomena in the nozzle at sea level, area ratio has to be limited, thus limiting the high altitude performance. For this reason the conventional

bell nozzle, which is having a single adaptation altitude cannot yield maximum performance along the whole trajectory. Although the ideal propulsion device would be an engine with adapted nozzle during its whole operating phase, a nozzle with a high adaptation altitude [1] would be sufficient to provide high engine performance as most of the operation of the main stage engines takes place at high altitudes. Unfortunately this approach cannot be accepted because of the generation of heavy side loads that take place during the over expanded phase at sea level. In fact, the expansion ratio of present bell nozzle is strongly limited by this phenomenon. Dual bell nozzle is one of the most promising choice among the new nozzle concepts. The idea is to realize a nozzle able to operate as adapted at two different altitudes without adding moving parts that could compro-

Corresponding author : ajaya1963@gmail.com , a_jayasree@lpsc.gov.in name: Jayashree.A , Scientist/Engineer SF, Modelling and Computational Analysis Division

mise the engine reliability. Indeed the double adaptation altitude is obtained by means of a geometrical discontinuity of the nozzle profile which yields two different operating modes, depending on the ambient condition that take place during the flight. In particular the divergent section features two bells with different exit area, connected at the inflection point. At low altitude the flow is attached in the first bell and separated downstream the inflection point. In this case the separation point is placed in a precise location, the inflection point, and thus a symmetrical separation takes place which guarantees a low level of side loads. At high altitude the nozzle operates with attached flow in the whole divergent section. Therefore, the limitation of nozzle expansion ratio due to sea-level operation can be circumvented, and, consequently, higher vacuum specific impulse can be obtained, compared to classical bell nozzles, which display a single adaptation altitude.

Nomenclature
Exit area ratio Mach angle Flow angle Prandtl Meyer angle

tion from sea-level to vacuum operation can be, at least theoretically, achieved by the extension, with a zero wall pressure gradient (constant pressure extension). In short, the design of the first bell can be carried out as for conventional nozzles, with the requirement that the flow never separates. On the contrary different aspects must be considered while designing the second bell profile. In fact, it has to provide the maximum performance during high altitude, the minimum aspiration drag at low altitude and the shortest transient. Method of characteristics is a method to select an optimum nozzle shape for a given expansion ratio. Hence MOC is used to design the first bell of the dual-bell nozzle and inverse MOC is used to design the second bell for obtaining constant pressure profile. Dual-bell nozzle profile is generated for different over expansion factor. Viscous losses in the flow cannot be computed using MOC. Hence the selected profiles were subjected for the CFD simulations and the role of nozzle profile on the performance of dual bell nozzle is studied. To implement the characteristic and compatibility equations into a computer code for designing supersonic nozzle contours ,the equations for two dimensional planar irrotational, inviscid flow has been used in discretized form as shown below[6]. (1) (2) (3)

Design of Dual Bell Nozzle

Dual bell nozzle is a promising candidate for altitude adaptation, which can deliver the advantages of both low area ratio nozzle and high area ratio nozzle. It has the unique feature of one-step altitude adaptation, achieved only by a wall inflection and thus without any moving parts. Concerning the transition from the operating mode with flow attached only in the primary nozzle to the operating mode with fully attached flow, the most critical aspect is represented by the possible generation of side loads. Indeed, assuming that the separation point during the transition could find a steady solution in the middle of the second bell, side loads may easily take place because of the possible non-axisymmetric location of the separation line. When the flow is separated at the inflection point, due to the recirculation that takes place along the second bell, a pressure lower than the ambient pressure acts on the extension wall, thus generating an aspiration drag. Thus what is required is maximum performance of base nozzle and minimum aspiration drag. A safe transition can occur only when the wall pressure distribution is designed such that no possible steady solution exists with the separation point located within the second divergent bell, and its movement from one flow structure to the other is as fast as possible. Flow transition behavior in dual-bell nozzles strongly depends on the contour type of the nozzle extension. A sudden transi-

Fig:1 Nozzle Contour along with Characteristic lines

By using the inverse of Prandtl Meyer function calculated the Mach number on all the characteristic points (Fig:1) and then by using isentropic relation the flow properties are evaluated. The dual bell nozzle can be divided into two parts (Fig: 2), the base or first bell and the second bell or the extension. For the base nozzle, a tool based on MOC is

used and for the extension Inverse MOC is used. The base length and the total length of the dual bell nozzle are assumed to be 80% of a conical nozzle with a half angle of 150. The first bell is designed by the Method of characteristic with exit area ratio =40. The throat radius is rt=0.045m. The inlet angle of the parabola is i=360 and the exit angle is A=120. The base nozzle length is 80% of the conical nozzle with a half angle of 150. The base is designed along with the circular arc at the throat with radius of curvature =0.03 m. The exit mach number of the first bell is 4.161. The design of the second bell (dual bell nozzle extension) follows an approach different than the first bell. The goal is not only the maximum performance but also a safe transition. To avoid stable separation location along the second bell a constraint on the wall pressure gradient should be satisfied, it has to be nonnegative. Therefore, the geometry of the extension is designed by an Inverse MOC [7] calculation of a profile with assigned wall pressure behavior satisfying the above constraint. The second bell is designed with an exit area ratio 80, inlet Mach number 4.161 and exit Mach number 4.697.Deflection angle [5] of the second bell where Prandtl

aration region of the combustion gas in the dual bell nozzle.

Fig 3: Computational domain for dual bell nozzle

The computational domain consists of the Chamber, convergent portion, throat, nozzle divergent and an external domain. Computational domain is divided into two parts one inside the domain and the other outside the domain as shown in the Fig: 3. Fine mesh is created inside the domain and coarse mesh in the external domain.

Meyer angle corresponding to the exit Mach number, is the Prandtl Meyer angle corresponding to the inlet Mach number A is the exit angle of the first bell and is the multiplication factor which corresponds to the degree of over expansion at the inflection point.

Fig: 4 Boundary condition used in flow domain

Total number of cells used is 38,450. The boundaries are specified say pressure inlet, pressure outlet etc as shown in the Fig: 4. The turbulence model used for the analysis is the Spalart-Allmaras model. This is a relatively simple one-equation model that solves a modeled transport equation for the kinematic eddy (turbulent) viscosity.

Results and Discussions

The role of nozzle profile on the flow characteristics and performance of dual bell nozzle are studied. For the generation of nozzle profile two codes were generated using MATLAB first MOC code for the design of base nozzle and second Inverse MOC code for the design of extension nozzle. A constant pressure profile is generated for the second bell of the dual bell nozzle using inverse MOC code for different inlet angles of the second bell. The generated profiles were subjected for CFD simulations. CFD analysis is carried out using FLUENT software. The analysis is carried out for different nozzles. Various conditions used for the nozzle are as given below:

Fig:2

Typical dual bell nozzle

CFD Simulation
Viscous losses in the flow will not be computed in MOC. Hence the selected profiles were subjected for the CFD simulations which are carried out using the CFD code, FLUENT. Axi-symmetric steady state analysis has been carried out to study the flow properties and predict the flow sep-

Nozzle1: Inlet angle of the second bell =Exit angle of the first bell+ 0.8*Prandtl-Mayer angle Nozzle2: Inlet angle of the second bell=Exit angle of the first bell+ 1.5*Prandtl-Mayer angle. Nozzle3: Inlet angle of the second bell =Exit angle of the first bell+2.0*Prandtl-Mayer angle, where 0.8, 1.5 and 2.0 are the different over expansion factor () Flow features are studied inside the dual bell nozzle. The results shown below are for Nozzle 2 with over expansion factor of =1.5. Chamber pressure used for simulation is 70 bar and the temperature used at the inlet is 3485 K. When the ambient pressure is relatively high ie; 1 bar which corresponds to the low altitude mode the flow separation occurs at the inflection point. Fig.5 shows the Mach number distribution inside the nozzle for low altitude mode. It is seen that in the low altitude mode, the effective area ratio is limited to the area ratio at the inflection point ie; base nozzle exit. The normal shock and the triple point occur near the extension nozzle exit are seen.
Fig: 6 Mach number distribution inside the dual bell nozzle when the transition starts

Fig: 7 Mach number distribution inside the dual bell nozzle for full flow

Fig: 7 shows the Mach number distribution when the ambient pressure is relatively low, which corresponds to high altitude mode. In this case the flow separation occurs at the extension nozzle exit. Back pressure for this condition is 0.2 bar. This means that the effective area ratio is the area ratio at the extension nozzle exit in the high altitude modes.
Fig: 5 Mach number distribution inside the dual bell nozzle for low altitude

It can be concluded that the flow pattern inside the nozzle changes drastically according to the change of ambient pressure due to the shock induced flow separation. This shows that the ambient pressure where the flow pattern changes is one of the key parameter to design the dual bell nozzle. For =0.8 , it is seen that the separation point is near the inflection point up to an exit pressure of 0.65 bar and

Fig: 6 shows the Mach number distribution when the transition starts. Back pressure for this condition is 0.59 bar.

flow separation from the second bell exit is observed for an exit pressure of 0.45 bar (Fig: 8).

0.54 bar. This indicates that for higher over expansion factor, flow transition starts at higher altitudes. In the case of alpha=2, no flow separation is observed in the second bell nozzle during flow transition.

Conclusions
A theoretical simulation is carried out to study the effect of nozzle profile on the flow transition. Different Nozzle profiles are generated for various expansion factor, . All the generated profiles were subjected for CFD analysis and the role of nozzle profile on flow transition were studied. It is seen that for the constant pressure profile, the separation point is near the inflection point within one fourth of the extension length or it is near the exit. It is also observed that as the over expansion factor increases the transition time decreases. The present Studies revealed that for avoiding flow separation from the second bell during flow transition, a minimum overexpansion factor of 2.0 is suggested.

Fig: 8 Wall pressure profile for Nozzle 1

For =1.5 (Fig: 9) it is seen that the separation point is near the inflection point up to 0.59 bar exit pressure. It moves towards the exit at 0.55 bar.

References
[1] Hagemann, G., Immich, H., Nguyen, T. V., and Dumnov, G. E., Advanced Rocket Nozzles, Journal of Propulsion and Power, Vol. 14, No. 5, Sep-Oct 1998, pp. 620634 [2] Horn,M., and Fisher,S., Dual Bell altitude compensating Nozzles, NASA CR-194719,1994 [3] Nasuti, F., Onofri, M., and Martelli, E., Effect of Wall Shape and Real Gas properties on Dual bell nozzle flow field, AIAA Paper 20053943, 10-13 Jul. 2005, 41st AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference and Exhibit [4] Chole Nurnberger_Genin and Ralf Stark., Experimental Study on Flow Transition in Dual Bell Nozzles, Journal of Propulsion and Power, Vol. 26, No. 3, May-June 2010, pp. 497-502 [5] Hirotaka Otsu., Masafumi Miyazawa., and Yasunori Nagata., Design Criterion of the Dual Bell Nozzle Contour, IAC-05-C4.2.08 [6] Anderson, JD., 1990,Modern compressible flow with Historical Perspective2nd edition pp307-359 [7] Paul M.Bevilaqua, and John D.Lee., Development of a nozzle to improve the turning of supersonic coanda jets, TECHNICAL REPORT AFWAL-TR-80-3027 Final Report for period 15 June 1979-15 March 1980 [8] Jayashree, A., Effect of nozzle profile on the flow transition of a Dual Bell Nozzle- M.Tech Thesis (January,2012), Indian Institute of Space Science & Technology, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India.

Fig: 9 Wall pressure profile for Nozzle2

Fig: 10 Wall pressure profile for Nozzle3

For =2.0 (Fig: 10) the separation point is near the inflection point up to 0.55 bar and it is near the exit at