Near Field Examination of Sonic/supersonic Nozzle flows

Abstract

This thesis presents a numerical study on compressible flow within and downstream sonic/supersonic nozzles. It is a close look on the effects of thermodynamics and geometry configuration on the gas flow inside and downstream the ducts. An in-house CFD solver is developed to accommodate the complex flow structure that accompanies the under expanded jet and impose the proper boundary conditions, in order to simulate the flow field. More focus is drawn to the phenomenon of Mach disk that occurs in case of highly under expanded flow, its location and height are thoroughly studied and analysed.