• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2017.05a
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• pp.379-382
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• 2017

Flow characteristics of dual bell nozzle with pintle were investigated. Thrust and thrust coefficient were compared with the pintle-bell nozzle of the same condition, and difference according to the pintle stroke was investigated. At stroke 0 mm, the thrust of the dual bell nozzle was about 13.18% higher than the bell nozzle, and when the pintle was backward, it was similar to the bell nozzle. The change in expansion ratio with stroke was considered to be more advantageous for a dual bell nozzle that performs altitude compensation through separation and transition.

• Journal of Aerospace System Engineering
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.1-9
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• 2020

The characteristics of an aerospike pintle nozzle system with excellent altitude compensation were analyzed using cold air testing. It was confirmed that reducing the stroke of the aerospike nozzle is effective in increasing the thrust. However, the results of additional numerical analysis indicated that the discharge coefficient factor was significantly lower at the maximum stroke. The Vena contracta due to the cowl reduction angle decreased the effective nozzle throat area at the maximum stroke and hindered expansion. Complementing the cowl design may thus increase the efficiency of a solid-propellant rocket engine that uses the aerospike pintle nozzle system.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.44 no.3
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• pp.247-255
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• 2016

The purpose of this study is to investigate unsteady-state characteristics of a pintle thruster with various pintle speed. Based on steady state experimental results, non-linear pintle stroke equation is obtained and applied to the unsteady state experimental system. For the unsteady state experiments, three different pintle speeds are used: 3.10 mm/s, 5.65 mm/s, 10.83 mm/s, respectively. Results show that backward pintle stroke results in faster convergence time because of high chamber pressure during backward pintle stroke sequence. During the forward and backward process, thrust curve shows singular points. These phenomenons is caused by variation of mass flow rate, which is mainly due to changes of both chamber pressures and nozzle throat area. This behavior becomes distinctive for a faster pintle speed case.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.1-9
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• 2017

Numerical computations are performed to investigate the effect of pintle stroke on the performance of an internal pintle thruster. Results show that the thrust control ratio was less than 2% and the aerodynamic load ratio was 22% as the pintle stroke increased. The flow past the nozzle throat rapidly expanding because of the shape of the pintle, and a shock wave was generated. Particularly, at the pintle stroke distance of 4 and 5 mm, the shock wave hit the wall of the nozzle, results in peeling bubbles. Depending on the altitude, the thrust increased and the aerodynamic load decreased, but the difference was as small as 1.5%. In the presence of the bore, the reduction of the pintle tip area resulted in a decrease in aerodynamic load.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.43 no.12
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• pp.1071-1078
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• 2015

Numerical computations were performed to investigate the effects of pintle stroke, altitude, and bore on the performance of an external pintle thruster. Results show that under-expansion flow occurs always, independent of pintle stroke. An external pintle thruster shows good performance in that it is capable of good amount of thrust control, while aerodynamic loads are increased due to shock waves on the pintle support. When altitude is increased to 20 km, the nozzle exit velocity, Mach number, thrust as well as aerodynamic loads are increased. Bore increases aerodynamic load 5.9%, and therefore pintle shape without bore is preferred for lower aerodynamic load of a pintle in order to actuate the pintle.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2017.05a
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• pp.383-387
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• 2017

A three dimensional numerical analysis has been conducted to analyze the effects of a pipe angle, connecting a combustion chamber and a pintle nozzle, and pintle position on pintle nozzle performance. The compressibility correction of $k-{\omega}$ SST turbulent model was implemented to precisely predict the characteristics of complex flow structures inside a supersonic pintle nozzle. Due to an 3-D asymmetric pintle nozzle configuration, complex helical flow streamlines and large flow separations were observed, which resulting in significant nozzle performance losses. As the angle of connection-tube decreases, the coefficient of performance increases and Since the flow structures are evidently changed to the pintle stroke position, the performance characteristics was analyzed.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.26 no.3
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• pp.43-53
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• 2022

In this study, analysis of the flow characteristics of pintle-controlled nozzle with split-line TVC system and the thrust performance prediction was performed. The numerical computation was verified by comparing the thrust coefficient derived from the analysis results with the experimental data. By applying the same numerical analysis technique, the flow characteristics of nozzle were confirmed according to operating altitude, pintle stroke position and TVC angle with the 1/10 scale. As the TVC angle increased, thrust loss occurred and the tendency of AF was different depending on the position of the pintle stroke. Based on the analysis results, the relation of thrust coefficient was derived by applying the response surface methods. The thrust performance model with a slight difference of 1.2% on average from the analysis result was generated.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.304-310
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• 2015

Pintle thrusters use pintle stroke to change nozzle throat area, and this controls thrust. Using MATLAB, one-dimensional simulation has been investigated and the results are compared to those of cold flow tests and computational fluid dynamics for the pintle thruster of Chungnam National University. The prediction based on one-dimensional flow theory shows good agreement with measurements for chamber pressure, but deviates for thrust, partly because of nozzle wall separation. Computational results show that nozzle wall separation occurs at an early stage of nozzle expansion, near the design nozzle throat, for the course of pintle strokes. Empirical thrust prediction incorporates nozzle wall separation, and thus 1-D simulation using empirical thrust prediction showed good results for an early stage of pintle stroke.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.43 no.4
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• pp.311-317
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• 2015

This paper describes how to apply one-dimensional simulation to predict unsteady state characteristics of the cold-gas pintle thruster. Mass flow rate, chamber pressure, and nozzle exit pressure are key parameters for thrust control. Chamber pressure rose and fell monotonously with the pintle stroke variation, while thrust variation was different from chamber pressure variation. During the forward pintle stroke operation, the thrust value tended to decrease initially and returned to increase when pintle speed and chamber free volume exceed some specified value. Even though one-dimensional simulation has the limitations to predict unsteady state characteristics, it is still useful for initial performance assessment of various thrusters which adopt an altitude compensation nozzle such as a dual-bell nozzle, prior to experiment or numerical analysis.

• Journal of Aerospace System Engineering
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.1-9
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• 2022

A design factor analysis was conducted to reduce the thrust reduction in the off-design, due to the driving of the aerospike pintle nozzle. The close (NPR 100) as well as the open (NPR 11) stroke were fixed, as under-expansion conditions. The pintle contour, pintle head radius (R), cowl angle (θ), and cowl exit length (L) were selected as design factors. The change in thrust was analyzed, using a verified numerical analysis technique. First, the pintle head radius and the length of the cowl exit had little influence on the thrust. The cowl angle changed the mass flow rate by affecting the effective nozzle throat area, and created a reverse pressure gradient at the cowl exit. As a result of applying the dual aerospike contour, it was confirmed that the thrust in the design-off increased by approximately 1.2%, compared to the reference case and by approximately 3.4% compared to the worst case.