Improved Models for the Porous Surface with Passive Control

A computational investigation of afterbody flow using a passive control method is conducted. The passive control method consists of a porous surface placed over a plenum. The purpose of the passive control method is to exploit the adverse pressure gradient present in afterbody flow in an attempt to reduce boundary layer separation and afterbody drag. Four different porous wall models are used to model the transpiration velocity in the region of passive control. A three-dimensional, time-dependent, Reynolds-averaged, simplified Navier-Stokes solver, PAB3D, is used to simulate afterbody flow with and without passive control. Three afterbody configurations with boat-tail angles of 10, 20, and 30 deg. are used to obtain two-dimensional solutions with a freestream Mach number of 0.6 and nozzle pressure ratio of 6. The region of passive control was initially placed from 20-60% of the nozzle length. The effect of the porous placement and porous extent is also studied. Baseline (no porosity) two-dimensional solutions are qualitatively similar to experimental data but under-predict the magnitude of the pressure recovery. Results for the subsonic solutions show losses in the pressure recovery for some cases with passive control. Three-dimensional effects are also investigated and seen to be very significant. Three-dimensional baseline solutions, for both sub- and super-critical freestream Mach numbers, compare very favorably with the experimental data in comparison to the two-dimensional solution. Future work is required to examine three-dimensional afterbody flows with passive porosity.