Analytical and experimental studies of tile-shaped aerospike nozzles

In search of an engine for space propulsive application that has higher performance and easier implementation, a new aerospike nozzle with axisymmetric thrust cells and concave plugs is studied. Numerical and experimental studies were carried out for such a nozzle with an area ratio of thrust cells of 3.24 and an overall expansion ratio of 22.15. The theoretical formulations was based on three-dimensional Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations. Turbulence closure was achieved using a low Reynolds number k-ε equation model. The companion experimental study utilized gaseous oxygen and alcohol as propellents. Results indicate that the tile-shaped plug resulted in a better flow force leading to a less restricting force-bearing condition for tile-shaped plug. For the tested model, a maximum nozzle efficiency of 0.95 near the design pressure ratio was obtained, and it has an obvious potential to increase performance by some percentage. Although the tile-shaped aerospike nozzle needs to be studied further, it is clear that it has high performance, has good altitude compensation ability, has case of implementation, and should be attractive for use in future propulsion systems.