Design and CFD analysis of an axisymmetric supersonic plug nozzle for an air-air

ejector
Zoltán Fuszko, and Róbert Olšiak

Citation: AIP Conference Proceedings 1768, 020033 (2016); doi: 10.1063/1.4963055

View online: https://doi.org/10.1063/1.4963055
View Table of Contents: http://aip.scitation.org/toc/apc/1768/1
Published by the American Institute of Physics

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 Design and CFD Analysis of an Axisymmetric Supersonic
Plug Nozzle for an Air-Air Ejector
Zoltán Fuszko1, a), Róbert Olšiak1, b)
1
Slovak University of Technology in Bratislava, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Institute of energy machinery,
Námestie slobody 17, 812 31 Bratislava 1, Slovakia
a)
zoltan.fuszko@stuba.sk
b)
robert.olsiak@stuba.sk

Abstract. The air-air ejectors in conjunction with a rotary vacuum pump are used to create and maintain vacuum in sealed
chamber for technological purposes. This system can partially decrease the value of the produced vacuum and eliminate
the cavitation phenomenon due to the higher inlet pressure present on the suction throat of the vacuum pump [1]. The main
working principle of any kind of ejector is the transfer of the kinetic energy conserved in the primary medium, which is
made by the interchange of momentum to the driven secondary medium. Because of the low density of the used gases is
the increase of kinetic energy possible only with a nozzle, which has the highest outlet velocity without the change of inlet
parameters. This paper presents an automatable design and CFD simulation method for axisymmetric plug nozzles.

INTRODUCTION
The family of supersonic gas nozzles are characterized by a changing converging-diverging shape of various ratios
of radial and axial coordinates. The development of the light weight rocket propulsion engines and the better
understanding of the isentropic flow gave the primal impulse for the optimization of the nozzle shape. During the
1960’s were various nozzle types and sizes tested including a plug nozzle and its truncated version, which were mostly
used in aeronautics because of the very small and predictable changes of the outlet parameters with ambient pressure
change. The supersonic air to air gas ejectors are commonly using axisymmetric conical or bell nozzles which shape
is designed just by the empirical equations, which leads to a non-uniform outlet velocity field with non-coaxial velocity
components. As an alternative to conventional nozzles will be a supersonic plug nozzle designed, which shape is
generated using the method of characteristics (MoC) numerical method in combination with the Prandtl-Meyer flow
equations. The outlet values as the velocity, Mach number and the pressure will be determined using the quasi-one
dimensional isentropic equations, the they will be examined and compared with the results of CFD simulation in
OpenFOAM.

PLUG NOZZLE
The described plug nozzle consists of a divergent-convergent shaped plug placed co-axially in a tubular housing.
The construction is from a given point of view can be described as a reversed de Laval nozzle. An important property
of the nozzle is that the gas expansion can proceed outside the nozzle, while the gas stream is redirected by the ambient
pressure to reach the co-axial velocity vector field. One of the main advantages of this nozzle compared with a de
Laval type nozzle is the relatively simple fabrication process due to the two-piece construction The full-length plug
represents the ideal nozzle shape, while the truncated one, with the same contour but length difference Δl calculated
according to Rao’s method determined in [2]. The subsonic part is calculated from the pre-specified thermodynamic
parameters, the geometry was designed to fluently increase the flow velocity up to M=1 at the throat section due to

The Meeting of Departments of Fluid Mechanics and Thermomechanics (35MDFMT)

AIP Conf. Proc. 1768, 020033-1–020033-9; doi: 10.1063/1.4963055
Published by AIP Publishing. 978-0-7354-1426-6/$30.00

020033-1
the negatively changing cross-section area (dA<0). The gas is then gradually expanded through a centralized wave
originated at the sharp corner of the plug.

FIGURE 1. CAD model and schematic of a plug nozzle with indicated Prandtl-Meyer waves and main geometric dimensions

The streamline passing through near this point defines the final shape of the diverging part of the nozzle. In our
case are the supersonic velocities achieved due to the pressure drop Δp between the nozzle inlet and outlet section.
The contour of the nozzle will be calculated for the most optimal operational conditions, when the back pressure is
equal to the design pressure. For the nozzle design the MoC described in [3] will be used.

PRANDTL-MEYER FLOW AND THE MOC

The expansion of gases around a convex sharp corner from velocity M1 to M2 is accompanied by the formation of
expansion waves alongside with the declination of the direction angle θ. The expansion is composed of an infinite
number of expansion waves, with a central start point, inclined by an infinitesimal Mach angle dμ until the final Mach
angle μ bounded to the desired outlet Mach number is reached.

FIGURE 2. Gas expansion around a corner and the interpretation of the Prandtl-Meyer angle

The Prandtl-Meyer formula (1) is used to determine the Mach number M at a given point of the flow field followed
by the Mach angle calculation (2). The used gas is characterized by the Poisson constant κ.
 1  1 2
 (M )  arctan ( M  1)  arctan M 2  1 (1)
 1  1
1
  arcsin (2)
M
These equations are describing only the sonic and transonic region. The Prandtl-Meyer angle (1), the Mach angle
(2) and the desired area ratio φ can exactly determine the flow characteristic in every vertex of the net generated by
the MoC, only by knowing the value of the Mach number of the given vertex and the specific heat ratio of the driven
gas. To achive a vortex-free flow in the supersonic domain, the Prandtl-Meyer angle should not exceed 130,45°.
The inverse of the Prandtl-Meyer number can be found by the Newton’s [7] method, or empirically using (3) by
Grujic from [4]:
1  Ay  By 2  Cy 3
M (3)
1  Dy  Ey 2

020033-2
 Where the coefficients for air (κ=1,4) are A= 1,3604; B= 0,0962; C= -0,5127; D= -0,6722, E= -0,3278.

90 60
Angle [°]

Ratio [‐]
80
50
70
60 40
50
30
40
30 20
20
10
10
0 0
1 1.5 2 2.5 3 3.5 4 4.5 5 5.5 6
Prandtl‐Meyer angle Mach angle Area ratio Mach [‐]

FIGURE 3. Prandtl-Meyer angle, Mach angle and area ratio as functions of the local Mach number

For the application of the MoC let’s consider a supersonic, inviscid, irrotational flow of a compressible fluid, in
which are the flow variables changing continually in space. However, they derivatives are indeterminate and over a
line called characteristic line can even be discontinuous. For detailed discussion and mathematical background of the
used method of characteristics, the reader is kindly referred to reference [5]. The geometrical interpretation of the
characteristic lines can be seen on Fig 4.
The geometric properties of the characteristic lines provide the compatibility equations:
   const (C  ) (4)
   const (C  ) (5)
The internal points can be solved applying (4) and (5) as seen on Fig. 4, by knowing the position of the 2 initial
points b and c, searching the coordinates of the third internal point a.

FIGURE 4. Geometric interpretation of the MoC

APPLICATION OF THE MOC

Using the above mentioned relations and the knowledge from quasi-one dimensional fluid flow was a numerical
software developed for nozzle shape design. It replaces the flow region with a net created from the characteristic lines,
which intersections are investigated during the calculation. The initial values required by the user are:
- n (number of characteristic lines) selected according to the required accuracy of contour
- A* (cross-section area at the throat) calculated from quasi-1D model
- Mex (outlet Mach number) calculated from quasi-1D model

020033-3
 The accuracy of the developed software depends on the net size, given by the number of rays at A*. The effect of
the chosen value n is visible on the following Fig. For comparison we are considering a 100% accuracy at n=150.

Accuracy difference [%]
70 3
Runtime [s]

60 2.5
50
2
40
1.5
30
1
20
10 0.5

0 0
0 10 20 30 40 50 60 70 80 90 100 110 120 130 140 150 160
Runtime Accuracy difference n [‐]

FIGURE 5. Runtime and accuracy depending on the chosen number of characteristics

The numerical calculation was implemented with n=75. The calculation approach consist of the following steps:
 Macro definitions
 Creating new blank output textfiles
 Declaration of variables (n, A_thr, M_ex, ni_ex, dM, thetha, thetha_max, ...)
 Keyboard input of required initial parameters (n, A_thr, M_ex)
 Calculation of the number of intersection points
 Declaration and reset of 2D matrixes (dim n x n)
 Calculation of the exit ν and θ angles
 Determination of matrixes C+ and C- (zero values under the diagonal)
 Calculation of ν and θ angles in intersection points from C+ and C- matrixes
 Using Newton’s method for Mach number calculation
 Individual calculation of 1. and 2. contour point
 Determination of the other contour points
 Write parameters to .txt
As the calculation ends, two text files are generated. The file “mtr.txt” contains the calculated variables of every
intersection point saved in matrix form by respecting the real location of the vertex point, and the file “coor_pl.txt”
includes the coordinates of the plug nozzle with generated subsonic portion with a straight intake part.
The geometry file of the nozzle is insertable in the most commonly used mesher software, such as Gambit, Gmesh
or Salome.

INITIAL CALCULATION
The contour design of the nozzle is calculated from the given initial values shown in table 1. The parameters at the
nozzle inlet represents the properties of the ambient atmospheric air at room temperature. In the calculation we assume
a constant value of the back pressure, which is ignited by the rotary vacuum pump itself.
The nozzle is designed to produce the optimal parameters at this given back pressure 5000 Pa of absolute pressure
measured at the outlet. The initial parameters are the following:
TABLE 1. Initial values used at pre-processing
Cross-section p T ρ M c A φ
[Pa] [K] [kg.m-3] [-] [m.s-1] [mm2] [-]
in 101 325 293,15 1,204 0,2 69,1 148,27 0,516
* 53 528 244,3 0,7633 1 313,3 287,5 1
ex 5000 124,1 0,1404 2,66 587,3 881,655 3,07

020033-4
where the cursive values are the fixed given values, while the others are calculated from the quasi-one dimensional
isentropic equations for supersonic gas flow, detailly explanined in reference [6].

THE GEOMETRY AND MESHING

The created geometry represents an axisymmetric plug nozzle for supersonic outlet velocity 2,66 Mach. It is
important to notice the point situated at [33,809; 0,0] which indicates the endpoint of the outer tubular housing. As
seen on Fig. 1., the placing of this point is, due to the reflected Prandtl-Meyer waves, critical.
The geometry in form of vertices is shown on the Fig. 6. below.

FIGURE 6. Geometry created by the developed software, plotted via GnuPlot

For comparison is a minimal length de Laval nozzle plotted alongside the designed plug nozzle. Is clearly visible
the length difference (approx. 35%) between the 2 constructions, however both of them were designed using the same
numerical approach.

18
Radial length [mm]

17
16
15
14
13
12
11
10
9
8
7 p*=52528 Pa pex=4623 Pa
6 T*=244,29 K Tex=121,35 K
5
4 ρ*=0,7633 kg∙m‐3 ρex=0,1328 kg∙m‐3
3 c*=313,3 m∙s‐1 cex=587,32
2 M*=1,00 Mex=2,66 
1
0
0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65
Plug nozzle Minimal length de Laval nozzle Axial length [mm] 

FIGURE 7. Contour points of a plug nozzle and de Laval nozzle diffusers designed for the same parameters

For the verification of the design method will be OpenFOAM, an open source CFD software, used. The
preprocessing of the numerical case should contain the meshed geometry with defined boundaries, the initial and
boundary conditions, the used numerical schemes and thermophysical properties.

020033-5
 For the meshing process was the built-in mesher used from the ANSYS CFD package. To shorten the simulation
process was a 3D to 2D case simplification established, where the thickness of the 2D object was set to 0.
Because of the used wall functions, an inflation at the wall boundaries was not needed to apply. Table 2 represents
the minimal, maximal and the mass weighted average (AVA) values of the investigated parameters:
TABLE 2. Properties of the created mesh
Mesh stats Skewness Orthogonal quality
Nodes 30 057 Min 2,34E-04 Min 0,76029
Hexahedra 29 458 Max 0,53205 Max 1
AVA 3,36E-02 AVA 0,99702
The created 2D mesh with boundary names was exported to OpenFOAM, then a wedge type boundary was with
the makeAxialMesh add-in tool with given arguments (rotation angle 5°), automatically generated.

FIGURE 8. Meshed geometry with named selections

CFD CASE
A transient solver sonicFoam for trans-sonic/supersonic flow of a compressible gas was used. This solver solves
the equations sequentially, which means, that the velocity field U is solved before updating the specific kinetic energy
field K. At this solver is important to correctly set up the initial velocity field thus the solver operates with velocities,
where the compressibility effect is expected.

SETUP
A total pressure boundary was used with the described value of atmospheric pressure and heat capacity ratio 1,4.
The outlet zone was set to zeroGradient, which means that the normal gradient of the flux is zero.
TABLE 3. Initial boundary conditions at time 0
boundary p U T k ε
totalPressure pressureInletVelocity fixedValue
inlet zeroGradient zeroGradient
101325Pa $internalField 293,15 K
outlet zeroGradient zeroGradient zeroGradient zeroGradient zeroGradient
wall_plug zeroGradient zeroGradient zeroGradient kqRWallFunction kqRWallFunction
wall_tube zeroGradient zeroGradient zeroGradient kqRWallFunction kqRWallFunction
internalField 5000 Pa 69 m.s-1 290 K default default
The case was simulated on 16 processors therefore it was divided by Scotch method, with the same weighting for
the decomposition between processors [8]. The residuals for calculated variables (rho, p, U, e, k, epsilon) were set to
10-6, which was solved by the smoothSolver in combination with the symmetric Gauss-Seidel smoother. A relatively
small initial time step with the same write interwal 10-8 was used. After approx. 50-70 iterations was the time step
manually changed in ControlDict file to 10-6 with runTimeModifiable parameter and Courant number limiter.

020033-6
 RESULTS
The results from the CFD simulation software was exported and compared with results calculated with analytic
expressions, and Newton’s numerical method. The convergence criteria was reached at t= 0,1070301s then the CFD
case was reconstructed to the root folder, applyed the Mach number calculation script and plotted the contours of the
observed parameters in the internal mesh region as shown on Fig. 9:

FIGURE 9. Contours of the observed parameters of the last time step (M, p, T)

A data set of the observed variables was visualised in the form of 2D graph, where the horizontal axis represents
the nozzle axial length, on the vertical axis are values of the variables itself. For this reason was a Slice filter applyed
and 100 axially perpendicular equidistant volume slices were created as shown on Fig 10. On these slices were the
cell attributes integrated and averaged by the nozzle’s cross-section area. These values had been exported to MS Excel
and further investigated.

FIGURE 10. Slices created along the nozzle axis

From the viewpoint of the efficiency and the usability of the nozzle are the variables present on the outlet are the
most important. In the Tab. 4 are the CFD outlet parameters compared with the results of the analytical and numerical
calculation.

020033-7
 TABLE 4. Results of the analytical, numerical and CFD calculation at x=63.07mm
M ΔM T ΔT p Δp
[-] [-] [K] [K] [Pa] [Pa]
Analytical 2,661 0,000 121,346 0,000 4623,688 0,000
Newton 2,485 0,176 121,284 0,062 4623,689 0,001
SonicFoam 2,548 0,113 112,875 8,471 5310,840 687,152

2.8
M [‐]

2.6
2.4
2.2
2.0 A
1.8
1.6
1.4
1.2
1.0
0.0 5.0 10.0 15.0 20.0 25.0 30.0 35.0 40.0 45.0 50.0 55.0 60.0 65.0
Analytic Newton SonicFoam Axial length [mm]

FIGURE 11. Progress of the Mach number in the divergent portion

As can be seen on the Fig. 11 the 3 calculation approaches are generating different courses of the Mach number.
It is important to mention, that the analytical solution method, and the Newton’s method are both based on the quasi
one-dimensional isentropic model [9], where the variables are changing only along the x-axis. Also, the heat losses
due to the friction between the moving fluid and the stationary wall were in these 2 methods neglected. The flow
parameters are changing in marked area A, due to the influence of the ambient pressure. This quasi mixing area is
responsible for the compensation of the thermodynamic parameter differences between the inner high speed air and
the ambient air. For the objective determination of the usability of the nozzle can be the isentropic efficiency of the
nozzle calculated by the ratio of enthalpy differences. The numerator represents the real enthalpy drop h0-hex, while
the denominator determines the theoretical (isentropic) enthalpy drop h0-hex, is. This ratio can be written in form of
outlet velocity square ratios too:
h0  hex c2
  2ex (6)
h0  hex ,is cex ,is
The efficiency of the nozzle simulated at design conditions, so when the back pressure equals to design outlet
pressure, reaches 86,16% in case that the analytical calculation means 100% efficiency.

CONCLUSION
A theoretical investigation has been carried out to develop and subsequently verify an automatable plug nozzle
design software. The verification process contained the geometry modeling, structured mesh generating, CFD case
setup and the CFD simulation itself. The developed software’s accuracy and the determination of the contour points
are depending on the net size, so on the number of intersection points, chosen as input parameter n. The numerical
stability of the algorithm decreases at nozzles with design Mach numbers greater than 4,7, in combination with small
throat cross-section area and low mass flow rate around 1E-04kgs-1. This causes, that the characteristic lines are too
close to each other, and then 2 intersection points will have assigned the same thermodynamic and angular parameters,
however they locations in the coordinate system are not identical.
The CFD simulation was made with the built-in sonicFoam solver using the PISO method, k-ε turbulence model
with the included wall functions. In the next stage of the investigation will be a physical model built and tested to
compare the measured outlet velocity with the simulated one.

020033-8
 REFERENCES
R. Olšiak, Kvapalinokružné vývevy s predradeným ejektorom (Slovenská technická univerzita v Bratislave,
Bratislava, 2000), pp. 18-43
G. V.R. Rao, Spike Nozzle Contour for Optimum Thrust, edited by C.W. Morrow (Pergamon Press, Canoga Park,
1961)
C.C. Lee and S.J. Inman, Numerical analysis of plug nozzles by the method of characteristics (Research
Laboratories Brown Engineering Company, Huntsville, 1964)
C. Ralph, How do you compute the inverse of the Prandtl-Meyer Function?, (Public Domain Aeronautical
Software, Santa Cruz, 2007)
A. McCabe, Design of a Supersonic Nozzle, (Aeronautical Research Council, London, 1967)
V. Molnár, Počítačová dynamika tekutín - Interdisciplinárny prístup k aplikáciam CFD, (Nakladateľstvo STU,
Bratislava, 2011)
B. P. Děmidovič, Základy numerické matematiky, (SNTL, Praha, 1966)
CFD Direct Limited, OpenFOAM User Guide, [ONLINE] http://www.cfd.direct/openfoam/user-guide/
J. Anderson Jr., Fundamentals of Aerodynamics, Third Edition, (McGraw-Hill Education, New York, 2001)

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