Fluid structure interaction in a rocket nozzle

This thesis is carried out at Volvo Aero in Trollhättan at the Department of combustion chambers and nozzles. The aim is to compare two methods for coupled analysis between structural and fluid calculations and assess if the methods can be applied on a whole nozzle. The softwares used are ANSYS CFX and ANSYS mechanical. The two methods evaluated are unidirectional and bidirectional Fluid Structure Interaction (FSI). The calculations are made on a section of half a coolant channel and the flow of the coolant, heat transfer and the displacements are calculated for the first three seconds of a start-up. In unidirectional FSI the calculations in ANSYS CFX are made first, the convection and pressure at the walls of the channel obtained are then exported to ANSYS mechanical where the displacements are calculated. In bidirectional FSI the calculations are performed simultaneously. The heat flux and total force density are calculated in ANSYS CFX while the temperature and displacement are calculated in ANSYS Mechanical. The conclusion of the thesis is that due to long calculation times neither of the methods is applicable on a whole nozzle even though unidirectional FSI is about ten times faster than bidirectional FSI for the case studied.

Author: Larsson, Linda; Suphap, Saowanee

Source: Lulea University of Technology

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