37

Engineering e-Transaction (ISSN 1823-6379)

Vol. 6, No. 1, June 2011, pp 37-42
Online at http://ejum.fsktm.um.edu.my
Received 5 October, 2010; Accepted 30 December, 2010
COMPUTATIONAL STUDY OF SUPERSONIC FLOW THROUGH A CONVERGING
DIVERGING NOZZLE
M.S.U. Chowdhury
1
, J.U. Ahamed
2
, P.M.O. Faruque
1
and M.M.K. Bhuiya
1
,

1
Department of Mechanical Engineering
Chittagong University of Engineering and Technology (CUET)
Chittagong - 4349, Bangladesh
2
Department of Mechanical Engineering
University of Malaya, 50603 Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
Email: jamal293@yahoo.com
ABSTRACT
Computational solution has been obtained for
Supersonic Flow through a Converging Diverging
Nozzle. Various characteristics of compressible fluid
flow through nozzle is analyzed and determined. The
nozzle geometry is assumed as circular and axi-
symmetric and flow as two dimensional flow.
Discredited equation is formed by dividing the
geometry into 2050 meshes. Ideal gas is assumed as
the working fluid & Iteration is done until
convergence. The variations in static pressure are
decreasing gradually and consequently the velocity of
the flow is increased. The variation of velocity,
Pressure, Temperature is determined along the length
of the nozzle and plotted its contour. Two dimensional
double precision (2-DPP) is used for the analysis of the
geometry.

Key words: Converging diverging nozzle; Control
volume; Back pressure; Mach number; Velocity
vector, Contour.

1. INTRODUCTION
Computational Fluid Dynamics (or CFD) is the
analysis of systems involving fluid flow, heat transfer
and associated phenomena such as chemical reactions
by means of computer-based simulation (Ferziger and
Peril, 2002; Sriram, 2009; Cherrared et al., 2008). It is
becoming very popular to solve flow problems without
doing any experiment. So it is very economical and
time saving. By the development of high speed
computer, there has been phenomenal growth in use of
computer for the simulation of the flow system. We
can now dispense with experimental methods in many
cases even in aerospace design. Before, we have to
analyze the flow system by manual discretization and
solved it by coding in computer language. But now it is
easier to simulate the flow problem by software
package very easily. Converging diverging nozzle is
one of the most important devices used in all
supersonic vehicles (Chima, 2010). Moreover we are
very much interested to increase the speed more and
more so it is important to carry out research on
converging diverging nozzle. CFD made the research
easier. The control volume, nozzle material, initial
velocity of fluid, geometry is to be selected first for the
analysis of back pressure, velocity vector, properties,
Mach number, pressure distribution of supersonic flow
through nozzle. Computational study for only U and V
components are calculated here. The converging
diverging geometry is shown in Fig.1.


Fig.1 Converging-diverging nozzle geometry

2. CO-ORDINATE SYSTEM
Cartesian co-ordinate system is used for drawing the
geometry of the nozzle. Moreover the geometry is
assumed as two dimensional and x- direction y-
direction velocity u and v respectively (Rahman et al.,
2010). To draw the geometry of the nozzle some
parameter is to be assumed. For analysis, the whole
structure is to be divided into small fragment called
cell. The smaller the cell size the finer the analysis.
Each cell is composed of six faces in case of three
dimensional analyses or one face in case of in case of
Converging Diverging
38

two dimensional analyses. Again each face is
composed of four edges and each edge is created by
joining point of two nodal points as shown in Figure 2
(Anderson, 1995, 1990).


Fig. 2 Process of meshing the geometry
3. GOVERNING EQUATIONS
CFD is based on the fundamental governing equations
of fluid dynamics. The Equations are continuity,
momentum, and energy equations.

To find out the properties of the flow system the
governing equations are applied in every node (Ahmed
et al., 2010; Zafar, 2003). Using governing equation
the whole control volume is discretized and then the
governing equations are solved using boundary
conditions. Finite volume method is used to solve the
discretized equation then this flow system is solved on
the basis of density, because the density-based
formulation may give it an accuracy (i.e. shock
resolution) advantage over the pressure-based solver
for high-speed compressible flows (Labworth, 2002).
Applying the mass, momentum and energy
conservation, assuming two-dimensional, steady,
compressible flow of varying density the governing
equations are:
Continuity Equation:
0 = +
i
j
x
U
Dt
D
o
o

------------------------ (1)
Momentum Equation:
j
j
ij
j i
j
i
j
g
x x
P
x
U
U
t
U

o
ot
o
o
o
o

o
o
+ = +
--------- (2)
I II III IV V
Where,
k
k
ij j
i
i
j
ij
x
U
x
U
x
U
o
o

o o
o
o
o
t
3
2
+
|
|
.
|

\
|
+ =

I. Local change with time
II. Momentum convection
III. Surface force
IV. Molecular - dependent momentum exchange
V. Mass- force
Energy Equation
i
j
ij
i j
i
i
i
x
U
x
T
x
U
p
x
T
U c
t
T
c
o
o
t
o
o

o
o
o
o

o
o

+ = +
2
2
---- (3)

Where,
I. Local energy change with time
II. Convective term
III. Pressure work
IV. Heat flux (diffusion)
V. Irreversible transfer of mechanical energy into heat
These above governing equations are applied over the
control volume and then solved by proper selection of
input conditions: flow system, solver selection,
boundary conditions, grid size, edge division etc
(Labworth, 2002).

4. METHODOLOGY
Since the nozzle has a circular cross-section, it is
reasonable to assume that the flow is axi-symmetric
and the geometry created to be two-dimensional
(Moinier et al., 2002; Cusdin and Muller, 2005).
Now
2
r A t =
; Where, ( ) x r is the radius of the
cross-section at a distance x
39

And
2
1 . 0 x A + = is assumed for generating the
nozzle geometry, then for the given nozzle geometry,
we get

( )
( )
5 . 0 5 . 0 ;
1 . 0
5 . 0
2
s s
(

+
= x
x
x r
t
---------- (4)

This is the equation of the curved wall. GAMBIT is
used for generating the geometry. The points of the
curve are connected by NURBS arc (Gambit, 2004).
The Nozzle geometry is drawn by using the following
data shown in Table 1. Meshed edges, control volume
and curved edges of nozzle are shown in Figures 3, 4
and 5.
Table 1 Data for Nozzle geometry
x

-0.5 0.3337
-0.4 0.2876
-0.3 0.2458
-0.2 0.2111
-0.1 0.1870
0 0.1787
0.1 0.1870
0.2 0.2111
0.3 0.2458
0.4 0.2876
0.5 0.3337


Fig. 3 Curved edge of the nozzle.

Fig. 4 Meshed edges

Fig. 5 Mesh control volume
Boundary types for each of the edges are specified in
the Table 2. The input conditions have to be defined
one by one as: defining solver, defining the viscosity
effect, defining Energy Equation, defining Fluid
Properties, (let ideal gas), defining Operating
Conditions, defining Boundary conditions, defining
Equation Type, Initializing inlet properties (Pressure =
99298.5 Pa; Axial velocity = 58.90128; Temperature =
298.2764), defining convergence criteria(let the
solution will be conversed at 10e
-6
), defining number
of iteration( let iteration number is 500) etc. is to be
done.

Table 2 Boundary types of edges

The residuals of the iteration are printed out as well as
plotted in the graphics window as they are calculated.
Since the iteration converges within 10
-6
value shown
in Fig. 6. So our criteria for solving the problem are
correct.

5. RESULTS AND DISCUSSIONS
5.1 Centerline Velocity
The variation of the axial velocity is plotted along the
centerline as shown in the Fig. 7. Fig. 7 shows that the
velocity of the centerline is increasing gradually and it
is maximum at the exit of the nozzle i.e. the velocity
turning from subsonic to supersonic gradually.


Edge
Position
Name Type
Left inlet PRESSURE_INLET
Right outlet PRESSURE_OUTLET
Top wall WALL
Bottom centerline AXIS
40

5.2 Centerline Pressure
The variation of the axial pressure is plotted along the
centerline and presented in the Fig. 8. The figure
shows that the pressure of the centerline is decreasing
gradually and it is the minimum at the exit of the


Fig. 6 Convergence diagram with iterations


Fig. 7 Centerline velocity change with respect to position.
41


Fig. 8 Static pressure changes with respect to position.

5.3 Vector Display
Fig. 9 shows the change of velocity along the flow
direction and red color represents the supersonic flow.
The scale on the left of the Fig. 9 represents the value
of temperature, pressure, velocity in the respective
figure along left to right of the nozzle.



Fig. 9 Velocity vectors vs. position colored by velocity.
6. CONCLUSIONS
CFD reduces time as well as cost of production of fluid
dynamics related products. It abates our experimental
cost. Any fluid flow and can be analyzed very easily.
All the aircrafts (whose velocity is more than the
velocity of sound) requires this type of simulation else
the cost of production of supersonic aircrafts will be
high and very much complicated.
Based on the simulation of supersonic flow through
nozzle the following conclusion may be drawn:
1. The range of horizontal axis is taken from -
0.5 to +0.5 because of simplifying the
drawing as well as simulation.
42

2. Solution is conversed at around 140 iteration,
residuals is ignored after 10
-6
value.
3. The velocity profile for the flow is sketched
in X-Y plane. The profile gives us
information about the increment of the
velocity in the right side of the nozzle.
4. The pressure profile shows that it reduces
along the right side and the back pressure is
around 1500 Pascal. Which means that the
pressure at exit of the nozzle must be 1500
else it will not act as a nozzle i.e. the flow will
not be supersonic.
5. If Mach number exceeds the value of 5, it
creates high temperature which causes the
chemical change of the fluid.

The flow through a converging-diverging nozzle is the
important problems used for modeling the
compressible flow for computational fluid dynamics.
Occurrence of shock in the flow field shows one of the
most prominent effects of compressibility over fluid
flow

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