Rocket Plumes
 

I was wondering if someone could recommend any references dealing with the modeling of rocket plumes. I require "only" a rough estimate of the plume size, shape, and temperature distribution.

This model will be used primarily outside the atmosphere. However, I will also need to model flight within the atmosphere at both subsonic and supersonic speeds.

So far, I've seen references to a couple AIAA papers from the mid 60's using the method of characteristics for this problem. Before hunting down these papers (guess I could still order them from AIAA?), I wanted to see if anyone knew of anything more recent.

Thanks,

- Kurt

Re: Rocket Plumes
 

Kurt,

There has been and is a lot of work done on rocket plumes, especially by the U. S. government. Try going to the NASA Technical Reports Server http://techreports.larc.nasa.gov/cgi-bin/NTRS and doing some searches on "rocket AND plume" or "rocket AND plume AND CFD". You should get a bunch of references, especially from the RECON site (an index of much of the aerospace literature).

You might also try doing a search for things related to SPF (Standard Plume Flowfield code), CHARM, or CHAMP - I know all three are/have been used by the missile plume community. Hope this helps.

Re: Rocket Plumes
 

Try looking for papers by Dr. Herman Krier. He is doing work on this topic at University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign.

David Creech CFX Subroutine Archive