Investigation of pressure and temperature distribution and flow separation over the ramp of the center-body in Aerospike nozzle

In this paper, the pressure and temperature distributions over the ramp of an Aerospike nozzle in different pressure ratios are presented. Governing equations of the turbulent flow have been solved using the finite volume method and different turbulence models. By comparing the obtained results with available experimental data, SST k-ω model has been selected for numerical simulations. In this study, the length of the recirculation zone, the temperature, and pressure variations within the recirculation zone and locations of the separation and reattachment points have been investigated in detail. Results show that the increase in the pressure ratio can move separation, reattachment points, and recirculation zone to downstream of the flow and also increase the length of the recirculation zone simultaneously. The maximum and minimum temperatures did not change but the maximum and minimum pressures reduced. Also, the results show that the reattachment point has the maximum temperature of the flow and this maximum temperature point can be adopted as the reattachment point.