Mechanical and Aerospace Engineers!

Before you watch this video, it is recommended that you watch my video on how to simulate flow in a typical rocket engine. The concepts are identical and the simulation techniques are the same:    • ANSYS Fluent: Rocket Engine Nozzle (W...  

With that being said...

Are you interested in aerospike nozzles? Interested in learning how to simulate flow around them for your design projects?

An aerospike nozzle is a new type of rocket engine primarily meant to improve efficiency at high altitudes. It serves this purpose by expanding the flow and accelerating it, hence improving the resulting exhaust plume.

Why expansion? You know that in typical rocket engines, the exhaust plume gets expanded rapidly since the ambient (outside air) pressure is significantly smaller than the pressure at the exit of the nozzle. This is called an underexpanded condition and is not optimal for thrust. An aerospike engine seeks to compensate for this by further expanding the flow. The resulting thrust is much higher when this occurs as the pressure differential is minimized.

This simulation performed in ANSYS Fluent CFD shows you in detail, how to model flow on an aerospike nozzle. To understand in more detail, the flow at the ENTRY of the aerospike nozzle portion must be SUPERSONIC, as only a supersonic flow can create shocks at an expansion point. Keep in mind that an aerospike nozzle is an addition to a typical convergingdiverging nozzle. It does not act to serve as a total replacement (i.e. you must have supersonic flow generated in the first place and this can only be accomplished by an aerospike nozzle).

My video going into more detail on how a typical (bell shaped) rocket engine nozzle works can be found here:    • How does a Rocket Engine (and Nozzle)...  

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VDEngineering

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