Coupled external and internal flow simulation of a Liquid Fuelled Ramjet vehicle

• Published in: Aerospace science and technology Vol. 36; pp. 1 - 4
• Main Authors: Chandra Murty, MSR, Chakraborty, Debasis
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Issy-les-Moulineaux Elsevier Masson SAS 01-07-2014; Elsevier
• Subjects: Air-intake; Applied sciences; Computational fluid dynamics; Computational methods in fluid dynamics; Energy; Energy. Thermal use of fuels; Engines and turbines; Equipments for energy generation and conversion: thermal, electrical, mechanical energy, etc; Exact sciences and technology; Fluid dynamics; Fundamental areas of phenomenology (including applications); Liquid Fuelled Ramjet; Physics; Computational fluid dynamics; Air-intake; Liquid Fuelled Ramjet; Liquid fuel; Internal flow; External flow; Air intake; Aerodynamics; Numerical simulation; Ramjet; Modeling
• ISSN: 1270-9638; 1626-3219
• DOI: 10.1016/j.ast.2014.03.011

For finalization of mission parameters of LFRJ-Technology Demonstrator vehicle with a belly-mounted twin intake configuration, CFD has been used extensively to obtain aerodynamic characteristics of the cruise vehicle as well as CV with booster. As the flow field is highly complex due to the asymmetric intake-body configuration, conventional engineering methods are inadequate and detailed CFD based methods have been introduced at early stage of vehicle design cycle. A coupled non-reacting external and internal flow through intakes, combustor and nozzle are solved at different flight conditions (Mach 1.8 to 2.5 and altitude 0.7 to 5 km at AOA=−5° to 5°) to obtain aerodynamic parameters. 3D RANS equations are solved along with SST k-ω turbulence model. Effects of grid and turbulence models are also studied. Utilizing CFD data, the external and internal flow configuration have been progressively evolved. CFD based methods have helped in generating aerodynamic characteristics of the vehicle which were very useful for mission study.