A Critical Review of Supersonic Flow Control for High-Speed Applications
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
applied sciences Review A Critical Review of Supersonic Flow Control for High-Speed Applications Abdul Aabid 1,* , Sher Afghan Khan 2 and Muneer Baig 1 1 Department of Engineering Management, College of Engineering, Prince Sultan University, P.O. Box 66833, Riyadh 11586, Saudi Arabia; [email protected] 2 Department of Mechanical Engineering, Faculty of Engineering, International Islamic University Malaysia, Kuala Lumpur 50728, Malaysia; [email protected] * Correspondence: [email protected] or [email protected] Abstract: In high-speed fluid dynamics, base pressure controls find many engineering applications, such as in the automobile and defense industries. Several studies have been reported on flow control with sudden expansion duct. Passive control was found to be more beneficial in the last four decades and is used in devices such as cavities, ribs, aerospikes, etc., but these need additional control mechanics and objects to control the flow. Therefore, in the last two decades, the active control method has been used via a microjet controller at the base region of the suddenly expanded duct of the convergent–divergent (CD) nozzle to control the flow, which was found to be a cost- efficient and energy-saving method. Hence, in this paper, a systemic literature review is conducted to investigate the research gap by reviewing the exhaustive work on the active control of high-speed aerodynamic flows from the nozzle as the major focus. Additionally, a basic idea about the nozzle and its configuration is discussed, and the passive control method for the control of flow, jet and noise are represented in order to investigate the existing contributions in supersonic speed applications. Citation: Aabid, A.; Khan, S.A.; Baig, A critical review of the last two decades considering the challenges and limitations in this field is M. A Critical Review of Supersonic expressed. As a contribution, some major and minor gaps are introduced, and we plot the research Flow Control for High-Speed trends in this field. As a result, this review can serve as guidance and an opportunity for scholars Applications. Appl. Sci. 2021, 11, 6899. who want to use an active control approach via microjets for supersonic flow problems. https://doi.org/10.3390/ app11156899 Keywords: flow control; de Laval nozzle; CD nozzle; microjet; supersonic flow; CFD; DOE Academic Editors: Luís L. Ferrás and Alexandre M. Afonso 1. Introduction Received: 26 June 2021 In supersonic vehicles, the flow of exit from the rockets and missile engines has become Accepted: 21 July 2021 Published: 27 July 2021 a significant issue. It has been found that the loss of air inside the high-speed vehicle engines turns to increase the base drag. For example, a nozzle with sudden expansion ducts will Publisher’s Note: MDPI stays neutral form a recirculation zone, increasing base drag. When the base drag increases, the total with regard to jurisdictional claims in amount of exit pressure will decrease, and this decrement will result in the loss of the published maps and institutional affil- forwarding force or thrust. Hence, many studies have reported controlling the high-speed iations. flows as a passive and active control method. In a passive control method, the duct shape is modified with additional devices/shapes, such as ribs, cavities, cylinders, aerospikes, splitter plate, etc. In addition, researchers used different devices of flow formation, such as a nozzle as internal flow control and bluff body, non-circular cylinders, airfoil, and wings as external aerodynamics flow control. On the other hand, the active control of high-speed Copyright: © 2021 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. flow has been studied extensively over the last two decades. Researchers have used a This article is an open access article high-speed nozzle with a sudden expansion duct and a microjet controller; a tiny hole in distributed under the terms and the base area is drilled to control the flow, which was found to be an excellent technique conditions of the Creative Commons in a supersonic flow problem. Hence, this review is more focused on the active control Attribution (CC BY) license (https:// approach, using a microjet in a CD nozzle. creativecommons.org/licenses/by/ The abrupt expansion of the external compressible flow over the back of the projectiles 4.0/). and its association to the base pressure has long been the focus of researchers’ interest. The Appl. Sci. 2021, 11, 6899. https://doi.org/10.3390/app11156899 https://www.mdpi.com/journal/applsci Appl. Sci. 2021, 11, x FOR PEER REVIEW 2 of 26 Appl. Sci. 2021, 11, 6899 2 of 25 The abrupt expansion of the external compressible flow over the back of the projectiles and its association to the base pressure has long been the focus of researchers’ baseinterest. drag, The which base accounts drag, which for a significantaccounts for portion a significant of the overall portion drag, of the is determined overall drag, by is thedetermined base pressure. by the Generally, base pressure. the base Generally, pressure the for base a high-speed pressure for projectile a high-speed is lower projectile than theis ambientlower than pressure. the ambient The vast pressure. majority The of the vast ballistics majority test of data the wereballistics supplied, test data leading were ussupplied, to presume leading that us the to base presume pressure that ratiothe base depends pressure entirely ratio depends on the flight entirely Mach on number. the flight ComparedMach number. to traditional Compared ballistics to traditional testing processes, ballistics the testing experimental processes, investigation the experimental of the internalinvestigation flow apparatus of the internal provides flow several apparatus distinguishing provides benefits.several distinguishing A significant amount benefits. of A airsignificant supply is amount lowered, of which air supply would is generally lowered, be which necessary would for generally the wind be tunnel necessary test section for the towind be large tunnel enough test sosection that wallto be interference large enough and so other that factorswall interference do not disrupt and theother model factors flow. do Internalnot disrupt flows the are model free of flow. stings Internal and other flows support are free devices of stings that and are other necessary support for devices external that floware investigations.necessary for external The most flow significant investigations. benefit The of themost internal significant flow benefit device of is thatthe internal static pressureflow device and surfaceis that static temperature pressure measurements and surface temperature can be recorded measurements as well as the can entry be recorded to the expansionas well as andthe entry the wake to the zone expansion (Figure 1and). These the wake observations zone (Figure are crucial1). These if theobservations theoretical are predictionscrucial if the are theoretical to be extensively predictions investigated. are to be extensively investigated. TheThe sudden sudden expansion expansion problems problems in in the the subsonic subsonic and and supersonic supersonic flow flow regimes regimes are are foundfound in in many many applications. applications. We We discovered discovered that that previous previous researchers researchers used used a a system system to to replicatereplicate high high altitude altitude conditions conditions in in jet jet and and rocket rocket engine engine test test cells, cells, jet jet discharge discharge results results in in insufficient, sub-atmospheric discharge pressure. This was found by Khan et al. [1], who insufficient, sub-atmospheric discharge pressure. This was found by Khan et al. [1], who used microjets to control the sudden expansion flow (base pressure) from the CD nozzle as used microjets to control the sudden expansion flow (base pressure) from the CD nozzle an active control method. as an active control method. FigureFigure 1. 1. Sudden expansion expansion flow flow field. field. Reprinted Reprinted with with permission permission from from ref. [2]. ref. Copyright [2]. Copyright 2021 2021Springer. Springer. InIn this this review, review, the the following following section section explores explores the fundamentalthe fundamental idea idea about about flow de-flow velopmentdevelopment and and its types,its types, which which gives gives a basic a basi understandingc understanding of of this this work. work. Section Section three three illustratesillustrates selected selected studies studies on theon the passive passive control control method method of high-speed of high-speed flow, jet, flow, and jet, noise, and whichnoise, provides which provides information information about the about passive the devicespassive anddevices their and benefits. their benefits. Section four Section is thefour main is the objective main objective of this work. of this Hence, work. Hence, for the for detailed the detailed investigation, investigation, this is this split is into split theinto different the different methodologies: methodologies: experimental, experiment computationalal, computational fluid dynamicsfluid dynamics (CFD) (CFD) and soft and computingsoft computing methods. methods. We reviewed We reviewed the most the relevant most relevant papers papers related related to the current to the work.current Sectionwork. fiveSection is the five main is the contribution main contribution of this review; of this based review; on thebased existing on the data existing in this data field, in wethis explore field, andwe criticallyexplore