Annular Aerospike Plug Nozzle Axial Thrust & Throat Acceleration

Rocket Propulsion Aerodynamics (CFD)PASS · 1.07%

Axial aerodynamic force, annular throat acceleration, and truncated base wake recirculation for an altitude-compensating annular aerospike plug nozzle with 6 cooling pylon struts.

Tolerance:: 5%

Open & Solve in BrowserSign in or register to launch this verified model in WebCAE

Open & Solve in Browser

Problem statement

Geometry: Cylindrical test cell Ø210 × 420 mm containing a contoured central aerospike plug (Ø100 mm throat shoulder, two-stage ramp, Ø32 mm truncated base), outer cowling shroud (14 mm annular throat gap), and 6 pitched struts (12°).
Material: Air at 20 °C (rho = 1.204 kg/m³, mu = 1.825e-5 Pa·s).
Boundary conditions: Inlet velocity U = 50.0 m/s along +X, outlet gauge pressure 0 Pa, outer cylindrical boundary symmetry, aerospike plug, shroud, and 6 struts viscous no-slip walls.
Measured quantity: Total axial aerodynamic force Fx (target 5.55 kN from annular throat momentum theory, computed 5.49 kN) and peak jet velocity |U|_max = 313.96 m/s.

WebCAE Terminal

Paste these commands into the Terminal panel inside WebCAE. They use the same text DSL as the application; run one command per line:

units mm
import path="cfd_aerospike_plug_nozzle.step" format=step
mesh tet size=22
cfd fluid air
cfd set mode=steady speed=50.0 turbulence=sst iterations=200 tol=1e-4 threads=8 intensity=5 multigrid=0 cfl=4.0
cfd inlet surface number 3 speed=50.0 intensity=0.05
cfd outlet surface number 2 pressure=0
cfd symmetry surface number 1
cfd wall surface number 4 monitor=on
cfd wall surface number 5 monitor=on
cfd wall surface number 6 monitor=on
cfd wall surface number 7 monitor=on
cfd wall surface number 8 monitor=on
cfd wall surface number 9 monitor=on
cfd wall surface number 10 monitor=on
cfd wall surface number 11 monitor=on
cfd wall surface number 12 monitor=on
cfd wall surface number 13 monitor=on
cfd wall surface number 14 monitor=on
cfd wall surface number 15 monitor=on
cfd wall surface number 16 monitor=on
cfd wall surface number 17 monitor=on
cfd wall surface number 18 monitor=on
cfd wall surface number 19 monitor=on
cfd wall surface number 20 monitor=on
cfd wall surface number 21 monitor=on
cfd wall surface number 22 monitor=on
cfd wall surface number 23 monitor=on
cfd wall surface number 24 monitor=on
cfd wall surface number 25 monitor=on
cfd wall surface number 26 monitor=on
cfd wall surface number 27 monitor=on
cfd wall surface number 28 monitor=on
cfd wall surface number 29 monitor=on
cfd wall surface number 30 monitor=on
cfd wall surface number 31 monitor=on
cfd wall surface number 32 monitor=on
cfd wall surface number 33 monitor=on
cfd wall surface number 34 monitor=on
cfd wall surface number 35 monitor=on
cfd wall surface number 36 monitor=on
cfd wall surface number 37 monitor=on
cfd wall surface number 38 monitor=on
cfd wall surface number 39 monitor=on
cfd wall surface number 40 monitor=on
cfd wall surface number 41 monitor=on
cfd wall surface number 42 monitor=on
cfd wall surface number 43 monitor=on
cfd wall surface number 44 monitor=on
cfd wall surface number 45 monitor=on
cfd wall surface number 46 monitor=on
cfd wall surface number 47 monitor=on
cfd wall surface number 48 monitor=on
cfd wall surface number 49 monitor=on
cfd wall surface number 50 monitor=on
cfd wall surface number 51 monitor=on
cfd wall surface number 52 monitor=on
solve cfd

Results comparison

Reference value	5.55 kN
Our result	5.49 kN
Deviation	1.07%
Tolerance	5%
Status	PASS · 1.07%
Element family	Finite-volume CFD
Mesh details	2448 узлов, 8627 тет (Netgen P1 tet mesh, кольцевое клиновое сопло Aerospike + 6 пилонов)

Updated: 2026-10-19 · WebCAE 0.2.0 · 54751b2e+dirty