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The expanding nozzle is a type of rocket nozzle that, unlike traditional designs, maintains its efficiency at a wide range of altitudes. It is a member of the class of altitude-compensating nozzles, a class that also includes the plug nozzle and aerospike. While the expanding nozzle is the least technically advanced and simplest to understand from a modeling point of view, it also appears to be the most difficult design to build. A Soyuz rocket, at Baikanur launch pad. ...
Rocket Nozzle A nozzle is a mechanical device designed to control the characteristics of a fluid flow as it exits from an enclosed chamber into some medium. ...
The plug nozzle is a type of rocket nozzle that, unlike traditional designs, maintains its efficiency at a wide range of altitudes. ...
XRS-2200 linear aerospike engine for the X-33 program being tested The aerospike engine is a type of rocket engine that maintains its aerodynamic efficiency across a wide range of altitudes through the use of an aerospike nozzle. ...
The expanding nozzle consists of two engine skirts (bells, etc.), one inside the other. The first skirt, attached directly to the engine nozzle, is designed for use at lower altitudes and is short and squat. The second, sitting outside the first, fits over the lower altitude bell to extend it into a longer and narrower (measured in terms of length) bell used for higher altitudes. At liftoff the outer bell is pulled up from the inner bell, out of the way of the exhaust. A the spacecraft climbs, the outer bell is pushed back down over the inner bell to increase the thrust efficiency.
Generally simple in concept, the expanding nozzle is considerably more complex to build than it might seem. Engine bells must be cooled to avoid damage from the hot rocket exhaust. The cooling is done by running either the oxidizer or fuel (in the case of LH2 fueled engines) though tubing in the bell under high pressure. With the bell moving, plumbing has to be flexible and this increases complexity to the extent that the advantages of the design are often considered too costly. LH2 is an acronym used in the aerospace industry, which stands for liquid hydrogen. ...
The Space Shuttle Main Engine was originally designed to use an expanding nozzle. Since these engines are fired from the point of liftoff into extra-atmospheric space flight, any sort of altitude compensation could dramatically improve their overall performance. The expanding nozzle was later abandoned in a cost-cutting phase, and today the SSME suffers a 25% loss of performance at low altitude as a result. Space Shuttle Main Engine cluster The Space Shuttle Main Engines (SSMEs) are the three main engines on the Space Shuttle orbiter. ...
Glushko has used an expanding nozzle on one design, the RD-701 tripropellant rocket. Funding ran out with the fall of the Soviet state, but the designers are convinced the engine has potential and have approached several parties for additional funding. Valentin Glushko Valentin Petrovich Glushko (Ukrainian: ; Russian: ) (born September 2, 1908 in Odessa, Russian Empire, died January 10, 1989) was a Soviet engineer of Ukrainian descent, and one of the three principal Soviet Chief Designers (along with Vladimir Chelomei and Sergey Korolev) of spacecraft and rockets during the Soviet/American...
A Tripropellant rocket is a form of spacecraft propulsion that uses two fuels and one oxidizer. ...
With the dissolution of the Soviet Union in December 1991, the Russian Federation became an independent country. ...
See also
The plug nozzle is a type of rocket nozzle that, unlike traditional designs, maintains its efficiency at a wide range of altitudes. ...
XRS-2200 linear aerospike engine for the X-33 program being tested The aerospike engine is a type of rocket engine that maintains its aerodynamic efficiency across a wide range of altitudes through the use of an aerospike nozzle. ...
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