Parametric study of a VLS based on 2-D FSI analysis

Vertical launching system (VLS) is useful in operating and sheltering high-speed rockets. The aft closure in the plenum plays a significant role in protecting the interiors from the exhaust gas induced by the ignition of adjacent or in-positioned canisters. During the aft opening/closing event, a complex flow is propagated into the VLS. By presence of such structural components, it is necessary to analyze the interaction between the deforming aft closure and a highly pressurized plume. This paper presents a two-dimensional fluid–structure interaction (FSI) simulation under high pressure loading condition for preliminary design of VLS. A quadrilateral 9-node element based on co-rotational (CR) framework is used to predict the geometrically/materially nonlinear deformation of the aft closure while supersonic impinging jet plume is predicted by fully Eulerian modeling. A contact mechanism is also utilized to apply reaction forces between the structures and inclined plenum using a penalty term. The interface and boundary conditions are obtained by the hybrid particle level-set method via the Ghost framework. Furthermore, a parametric study is conducted by changing the thickness of the aft closure and the inclined angle of the plenum. It is expected that the magnitudes of pressure and temperature can be decreased by the introduction of appropriate thickness of the aft closure and inclined angle in the plenum.