10. Calculation of Gas Flow in High-Altitude Engine Nozzle and Experience of Using Water-Cooled Nozzle Head during Tests

Annotation: At Yuzhnoye State Design Office, the Cyclone-4 launch vehicle 3rd stage engine has been developed and is under testing. For adjustment of the engine and test bench systems, in the first firing tests the radiation-cooled nozzle extension was replaced with a steel water-cooled one. It was planned to start the engine with water-cooled nozzle extension without vacuumizing and without gad dynamic pipe, which conditioned operation with flow separation at the output edge of water-cooled nozzle extension. Therefore, the calculation of flow in the nozzle with water-cooled extension, flow separation place, and thermal load on watercooled nozzle extension during operation in ground conditions is an important task. Selection of turbulent flow model has a noticeable impact on prediction of flow characteristics. The gas dynamic analysis of the nozzle with water-cooled extension showed the importance of using the turbulent flow model k-ω SST for the flows with internal separation of boundary layer and with flow separation at nozzle section. The use the flow model k-ω SST for calculation of nozzle with flow separation or with internal transitional layer allows adequately describing the flow pattern, though, as the comparison with experimental data showed, this model predicts later flow separation from the wall than that obtained in the tests. The calculation allows obtaining a temperature profile of the wall and providing the recommendations for selection of pressure measurement place in the nozzle extension for the purpose of reducing sensors indication error. With consideration for the special nature of the nozzle extension wall temperature field, the cooling mode was selected. The tests of RD861K engine nozzle with water-cooled extension allow speaking about its successful use as a required element for testing engine start and operation in ground conditions without additional test bench equipment.