Numerical Investigation of Space Launch Vehicle Base Flows with Hot Plumes
- Resource Type
- Authors
- Thino Eggers; Volker Hannemann; Markus Fertig; Jan-Erik Schumann; Klaus Hannemann
- Source
- Notes on Numerical Fluid Mechanics and Multidisciplinary Design ISBN: 9783030538460
- Subject
- Materials science
Hydrogen
Nozzle
Base (geometry)
Raumfahrzeuge, GO
chemistry.chemical_element
Mechanics
01 natural sciences
010305 fluids & plasmas
Plume
Physics::Fluid Dynamics
Raumfahrzeuge, BS
chemistry
Heat flux
0103 physical sciences
Thermal
scale resolved turbulence
base buffeting
010306 general physics
Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equations
CFD
Water vapor
- Language
- English
The flow field around generic space launch vehicles with hot exhaust plumes is investigated numerically. Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) simulations are thermally coupled to a structure solver to allow determination of heat fluxes into and temperatures in the model structure. The obtained wall temperatures are used to accurately investigate the mechanical and thermal loads using Improved Delayed Detached Eddy Simulations (IDDES) as well as RANS. The investigated configurations feature cases both with cold air and hot hydrogen/ water vapour plumes as well as cold and hot wall temperatures. It is found that the presence of a hot plume increases the size of the recirculation region and changes the pressure distribution on the nozzle structure and thus the loads experienced by the vehicle. The same effect is observed when increasing the wall temperatures. Both RANS and IDDES approaches predict the qualitative changes between the configurations, but the reattachment location predicted by IDDES is up to 7% further upstream than that predicted by RANS. Additionally, the heat flux distribution along the nozzle and base surface is analysed and shows significant discrepancies between RANS and IDDES, especially on the nozzle surface and in the base corner.