Aerodynamic Design of a Laval Nozzle for Real Gas Using Hodograph Method

Abstract

We propose an approach for the design of the subsonic part of plane and axisymmetric Laval nozzles for real gases. The proposed approach is based on the hodograph method and allows one to solve the inverse design problem directly. Real gas effects are taken into consideration using the chemical equilibrium model. We present nozzle contours computed with the proposed method for a stoichiometric methane-air mixture. Results confirm that real gas effects have a strong influence on the nozzle shape. The described method can be used in the design of nozzles for rocket engines and for high-enthalpy wind tunnels.

Keywords

• Laval nozzle
• hodograph method
• real gas
• chemical equilibrium
• inverse problem
• potential flow