Assessment of turbulence modeling for gas flow in two-dimensional convergent-divergent rocket nozzle

In the present study, the turbulent gas flow dynamics in a two-dimensional convergent-divergent rocket nozzle is numerically predicted and the associated physical phenomena are investigated for various operating conditions. The nozzle is assumed to have impermeable and adiabatic walls with a flow straightener in the upstream side and is connected to a plenum surrounding the nozzle geometry and extended in the downstream direction. In this integrated component model, the inlet flow is assumed a two-dimensional, steady, compressible, turbulent and subsonic. The physics based mathematical model of the considered flow consists of conservation of mass, momentum and energy equations subject to appropriate boundary conditions as defined by the physical problem stated above. The system of the governing equations with turbulent effects is solved numerically using different turbulence models to demonstrate their numerical accuracy in predicting the characteristics of turbulent gas flow in such complex geometry. The performance of the different turbulence models adopted has been assessed by comparing the obtained results of the static wall pressure and the shock position with the available experimental and numerical data. The dimensionless shear stress at the nozzle wall and the separation point are also computed and the flow field is illustrated. The various implemented turbulence models have shown different behavior of the turbulent characteristics. However, the shear-stress transport (SST) k-omega model exhibits the best overall agreement with the experimental measurements. In general, the proposed numerical procedure applied in the present paper shows good capability in predicting the physical phenomena and the flow characteristics encountered in such kinds of complex turbulent flow. (C) 2011 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.