Secondary injection fluidic thrust vectoring of an axisymmetric supersonic nozzle
Secondary injection into the divergent section of a supersonic rocket nozzle is investigated for the fluidic thrust vectoring effects. The study was conducted in the framework of CNES PERSEUS program and was motivated by the need for an alternative vectoring solution aimed for a small space launcher. The thesis work, based on the combined experimental and numerical approaches, essentially comprises of a wide parametric study mainly concerning the position of the injection, the shape of the primary and injection nozzles, flow regime, gas thermophysical properties and injected fluid mass-flow-rate. The analysis shows that for some optimal configurations, pertinent deflection angles can be obtained using the moderate injection rates. Furthermore, the study was extended to the hot flow multi-species investigation, simulating a case closer to the real applications. This numerical analysis indicated that the fluidic vectoring method remains effective with injection of combustion products into the divergent section of a propulsive rocket nozzle.