Abstract
This study investigates numerically the performance of applying aerospike nozzle in a hydrogen peroxide mono-propellant propulsion system. A set of governing equations, including continuity, momentum, energy and species conservation equations with extended k-Î turbulence equations, are solved using the finite-volume method. The hydrogen peroxide mono-propellant is assumed to be fully decomposed into water vapor and oxygen after flowing through a catalyst bed before entering the nozzle. The aerospike nozzle is expected to have high performance even in deep throttling cases due to its self-compensating characteristics in a wide range of ambient pressure environments. The results show that the thrust coefficient efficiency (Cf,η) of this work exceeds 90% of the theoretical value with a nozzle pressure ratio (PR) in the range of 20 ~ 45. Many complex gas dynamics phenomena in the aerospike nozzle are found and explained in the paper. In addition, performance of the aerospike nozzle is compared with that of the bell-shape nozzle.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 427-440 |
Number of pages | 14 |
Journal | Journal of Mechanics |
Volume | 35 |
Issue number | 3 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 1 Jun 2019 |
Keywords
- Aerospike nozzle
- Computational fluid dynamics
- Hydrogen peroxide
- Mono-propellant