Proceedings of the International Conference on Aerospace Science and Technology

26 - 28 June 2008, Bangaloire, India

I

INCAST 2008- 074

AN EXPERIMENTAL AND NUMERICAL INVESTIGATION OF SUPERSONIC

CONTOUR NOZZLE FLOW SEPARATION

M. Venkata Raman1, C. Senthil Kumar2 and Dr. S. Elangovan3

1
PG Student, Dept of Aerospace Engineering, MIT, Anna University, Chennai, India, venkatwaits@gmail.com.
2
Lecturer, Dept of Aerospace Engineering, MIT, Anna University, Chennai, India, cskumar34@yahoo.co.in.
3
Assistant Professor, Dept of Aerospace Engineering, MIT, Anna University, Chennai, India, subelango@yahoo.co.in.

ABSTRACT

The project presents, preliminary experimental and numerical results on separation of supersonic flow inside a
convergent-divergent (CD) contour nozzle. The study is motivated by the flow separation occurring inside CD nozzles
operated at low pressure ratio. A novel apparatus allows investigation of many pressure ratios with large optical access
and measurement of wall pressures. The separated flow in a convergent-divergent (CD) contour nozzle is investigated
by the solution of the Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes equations with a two-equation k-ε turbulent model. For a
fixed area ratio, defined as the exit area to the throat area, Ae / At of 1.638, computations are conducted over a range of
nozzle pressure ratio (NPR). The computational results are used to further examine the effect of the separated flow.
Unlike the experiment, no unsteady shock movements are simulated. The computed wall pressure distribution is in
good agreement with the experimental data. Also consistent with experimental observations, the flow separates
asymmetrically for the range of 1.5<NPR<3.5 investigated. Further at higher NPR not covered by the experiment, the
present computation shows the flow reverts to a symmetric form. Downstream of the shock, flow accelerates to
supersonic speed and then recompresses.

INTRODUCTION

Flow separation may occur in an convergent-divergent (CD) contour nozzle due to the nozzle expansion ratio being
too large for a given nozzle pressure ratio (NPR). In that case, supersonic contour nozzle flow expands to a pressure
level that is far lower than the ambient pressure, causing the formation of a normal shock and detachment of the
ensuing flow from the nozzle walls. For some nozzle shapes, the flow separation can generate large unpredictable side-
loads. The survey shows that the separation as an undesirable occurrence, and showed that off-design nozzle thrust
efficiency could be greatly improved by controlling the location and extent of the separation. The understanding and
prediction of the physical mechanisms behind the supersonic nozzle separation flow is important for designing efficient
nozzle configuration that avoids asymmetric side forces and enhances flow mixing. In that case, supersonic (CD)
contour nozzle design is carried out using Method of characteristics, region method.

Although there is a large amount of literature published for separated nozzle, the detailed investigation on separation
flow mechanism is less matured. Most of available publications are concentrated on prediction of separation location. A
review paper by Morrisette and Goldberg, based on a variety of experimental results concludes that zero-pressure
gradient separation prediction method, like that proposed by Reshotoko and Tucker, give reasonable predictions for
nozzles with turbulent separation and large divergence angle.
 Proceedings of the International Conference on Aerospace Science and Technology
26 - 28 June 2008, Bangaloire, India
International Conference on Aerospace Science and Technology
26-28 June2008, Bangalore, India

In the paper of Romine, the mechanism for causing the flow separation from the nozzle wall is demonstrated, and the
theory for a new solution of the separation location is presented. Near the center-line of the nozzle, Romine postulates
that the pressure adjusts to the ambient pressure via a gradual under expansion. On the wall, the flow adjusts to the
ambient pressure almost immediately past the shock. Some previous studies have conducted numerical prediction of
separated nozzle flows and the internal performance, such as Hunter, Carlson, Xiao. In general, the computation is in
excellent agreement with experimental data. In the paper of Hunter, two distinct separation regimes are shown from
their experimental results on a two dimensional planar nozzle with Ae/At =1.8. For NPR<1.8. The flow shows three-
dimensional separation with partial reattachment. Fully-detached two-dimensional separation is found for NPR>2.0.
The under expansion of flow after the main shock is evident from the computed Mach number contours, although this
was not explicitly expressed. Recently, Papamoschou and Zill11 investigated experimentally the supersonic separated
flow inside a symmetric convergent-divergent nozzle.
DESCRIPTION
The asymmetric flow separation occurring in geometrically symmetric nozzle has not been computed. For
experimenting the contour CD nozzle is fabricated using Method of Characteristics. The nozzle made of Hardened
Stainless Steel using Electric Discharge Machining. This has 16 pressure ports, which is made available to connect a
digital pressure sensor (Scannivalve) for the accurate pressure measurement. The wall pressure is measured by 2000
frames per minute using the DSA Link software. Unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations with RNG, K-ε
and K-ω turbulent model were used for the computation.

Fig. 1 shows the nozzle designed by Method of Characteristics and fabricated using Electric Discharge Machining.

RESULT & DISCUSSION

An investigation has been conducted into the source of plume instability from convergent-divergent contour nozzles.
The effect of internal shock phenomena on the plume unsteadiness was a particular focus. Time-resolved measurements
of wall static pressures and total pressure in the plume were correlated. A summary of the key findings is as follows:
• For nozzle pressure ratios that give rise to flow separation inside the nozzle, increasing the nozzle area
ratio from 1 (straight nozzle) to 1.6 (convergent-divergent nozzle) results in a three-fold increase in the
rms total pressure fluctuations near the nozzle exit. Spectra indicate that most of the instability energy
is contained at low to moderate frequencies.
 Proceedings of the International Conference on Aerospace Science and Technology
26 - 28 June 2008, Bangaloire, India
International Conference on Aerospace Science and Technology
26-28 June2008, Bangalore, India

• For the conditions of this study, the separation is asymmetric.

• There are substantial correlations between the wall pressures caused by the flow separation and the total
pressure inside the large separation zone. The frequency content of the total pressure fluctuation is similar to that of the
separation motion.
• There is consistently better coherence between the total pressures in the separation zone. This suggests that the
instability mechanism is due to an interaction between the expansion fans reflected from the smaller lambda foot with
the shear layer of the larger separation zone.

GRAPHS

Numerical and Experimental results were compared for the Mach 2 supersonic contour nozzle flow separation.

Fig. 2 shows the wall pressure distribution of Mach 2 supersonic contour nozzle for In-viscid case.

Fig. 3 shows the wall pressure distribution of Mach 2 supersonic contour nozzle for RNG model.
 Proceedings of the International Conference on Aerospace Science and Technology
26 - 28 June 2008, Bangaloire, India
International Conference on Aerospace Science and Technology
26-28 June2008, Bangalore, India

Fig. 4 shows the wall pressure distribution of Mach 2 supersonic contour nozzle for K-ε model.

Fig. 5 shows the Experimental wall pressure distribution of Mach 2 supersonic contour nozzle.

REFERENCES

1. Dimitri Papamoschou and Johnson, A., "Unsteady Phenomena in Supersonic Nozzle Flow Separation"
AIAA-2006-3360, presented at the AIAA 36th Fluid Dynamics Conference and Exhibit, June 4-11, 2006, San
Francisco.
2. Xiao, Q., Tsai, H.M., and Papamoschou, D., "Numerical Investigation of Supersonic Nozzle Flow
Separation," AIAA-2005-4640, presented at the 35th AIAA Fluid Dynamics Conference, June 6-9, 2005, Toronto,
Ontario, Canada.
3. Romine, G. L., “Nozzle Flow Separation,” AIAA Journal, Vol. 36, No.9, pp.1618-1625, 1998.
4. Papamoschou, D. and Zill,.A., "Fundamental Investigation of Supersonic Nozzle Flow Separation,"
AIAA-2004-1111, presented at the AIAA 42nd Aerospace Sciences Meeting, January 2004, Reno, NV.