Numerical Investigation of the Burner-Nozzle Interaction on Fluidic Thrust Vectoring

In this work, the vectored performances of a supersonic 2-D nozzle in hot flow conditions are studied numerically. The nozzle geometry selected here was tested experimentally at Nasa LaRC and the related results are available in the open literature. The nozzle hot flow conditions are generated in a more realistic manner by joining the nozzle inlet with an Advanced Vortex Combustor (AVC), in order to account for the interaction between them. This allowed to simulate combustion ahead of the nozzle and to obtain the distribution profiles of thermodynamic quantities at the inlet section of the nozzle. The Thrust Vectoring performance parameters are computed for cold and hot flow conditions. The simulations are performed via a URANS equations solver. The realizable k − ε turbulence model is employed. Combustion is simulated by a two-step chemical model of CH4 −Air combustion in premixed conditions. The cold flow results show good agreement between the numerical results and experimental data available. The hot flow (reacting flow) simulations show a reduction in the thrust vectoring performance when compared with the analogous in cold flow conditions.