Effect of Bypass Duct on the Thrust Vectoring Performance of Dual Throat Nozzle in a Supersonic Aircraft

Abstract

Due to its ability to maximize thrust-vectoring performance, the bypass dual throat nozzle (BDTN) has an advantage over other fluidic vectoring controls. In this study, numerical simulation is performed to analyze the flow characteristics and performance parameters of an aircraft engine with three different nozzle configurations. The nozzle of a representative engine i.e., an F100 engine was selected as a model geometry to test the efficiency obtained by BDTN. The present investigation has shown that implementing a bypass channel on a real geometry nozzle has no significant effects on thrust vectoring performance in vectoring mode. Although the real geometry scheme has a higher thrust and a discharge coefficient, the smaller cavity length resulted in lower vectoring angles. Modifying the real geometry nozzle according to the BDTN configuration significantly improved the thrust vectoring performance. However, the V-shaped bypass passage flow in the modified geometry scheme imposed unnecessary total pressure losses in the nozzle. A geometry scheme that utilized an arc-shaped rather than a V-shaped bypass passage is considered in this research and found to present minimize pressure losses. A total increase of 2% and 3.5% is hereby reported, for thrust and discharge coefficients respectively. A decrease of 6% is reported in the thrust vectoring angle under an improved geometrical scheme. Out of three geometries, the real geometry scheme reported negligible thrust vectoring performance, while modified and improved geometry schemes indicated improved thrust vectoring performance without substantially changing the engine states.