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

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.

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