Hydrocodes » Rocket Exhausts
Another practical example of reactive flow is the secondary combustion occurring in the exhaust plume of a rocket motor. Here the exhaust can still be fuel rich and the turbulent mixing with the atmosphere coupled with the shock structure that is present in some plumes again provides a wealth of detail for a numerical model to study.
We show a calculation showing the initial development of a plume from the impulsive start up of a rocket exhaust. The movie clearly shows the formation of the barrel shocks and the Mach stem at the centre of the plume as well as turbulent mixing at the edge of the plume.