Fluidic Thrust Vectoring for Annular Aerospike Nozzle

Annular aerospike nozzles represent a potential upgrade for existing space launching systems in which the engine works from sea level to almost vacuum conditions. Their self-adaptive capability allows to achieve a larger specific impulse with respect to fixed shape bell nozzles. In this work an annular nozzle feed by a toroidal combustion chamber is considered. In such a configuration, it is not possible to achieve thrust vectoring by differential throttling since the system uses a single combustion chamber. For this reason, fluidic thrust vectoring is investi- gated in this work by considering a secondary flow injection on the truncated plug. Numerical simulations are performed in order to understand which are the main phenomena which affect the interaction between the primary and the secondary flow. In particular, the influence of the secondary mass flow rate and the injection port location are investigated.