Investigation of Flow Characteristics inside a Dual Bell Nozzle with and without Film Cooling

TL;DR

This study uses simulations to analyze how secondary flow injection at different locations affects flow, cooling, and separation in a dual bell nozzle, aiming to optimize thrust.

Contribution

It introduces a detailed simulation approach to evaluate the impact of secondary flow injection locations and Mach number on nozzle performance.

Findings

Injection at the inflection region improves cooling.

Secondary flow injection influences separation point control.

Mach number of secondary flow affects mixing and thrust.

Abstract

In this study, we perform a two-dimensional axisymmetric simulation to assess the flow characteristics and understand the film cooling process in a dual bell nozzle. The secondary stream with low temperature is injected at three different axial locations on the nozzle wall, and the simulations are carried out to emphasize the impact of injection location (secondary flow) on film cooling of the dual bell nozzle. The cooling effect is demonstrated through the temperature and pressure distributions on the nozzle wall or, in-turn, the separation point movement. Downstream of the injection point, the Mach number and temperature profiles document the mixing of the main flow and secondary flow. The inflection region is observed to be the most promising location for the injection of the secondary flow. We have further investigated the effect of Mach number of the secondary stream. The current study demonstrates that one can control the separation point in a dual bell nozzle with the help of secondary injection (Mach number) so that an optimum amount of thrust can be achieved.