Rocket motor plume flowfields: Phenomenology and simulation

The varied processes occurring in rocket motor exhaust plumes and methodology for simulating these processes are described. Rocket motor plumes contain shock waves due to under/overexpansion; the exhaust mixes with the external stream in a highly compressible turbulent environment; unburnt products of combustion after-burn strongly at lower altitudes; and solid propellant plumes contain particulates which are generally out of equilibrium with the gas-phase exhaust. Earlier methodology simulated the varied processes using boundary layer type coupling. Current methods implement solutions of the full or reduced (parabolized) Navier-Stokes equations where all fluid dynamic and thermochemical processes are strongly coupled. Earlier methodology are reviewed briefly while the status of current methods is addressed in greater detail.