The Influence of Different Turbulence Models on the FlowField Characteristics of an Aerospike Nozzle

Abstract

To improve the calculation of the flow properties of an aerospike nozzle, different turbulent models are studied in this research. The primary shape of the nozzle and the plug is determined through utilizing an approximate method. The flow field is then simulated using Navier-Stokes equations for compressible flow. The computational methodology utilizes steady state density-based formulation and a finite volume cell centered scheme to discretize the flow field equations. To accelerate the solution convergence, the flow field is divided into several zones. Each zone is facilitated with proper unstructured grid and appropriate initial conditions are implemented to each zone. The accuracy and the robustness of wall function based turbulence models i.e. standard and RNG k-ε models are compared with those of Spalart-Allmaras (S-A) and k-ω turbulence models.