A novel method was developed to design and fabricate nozzles capable of producing low-divergence fluid jets. Nozzle apertures were elliptical, and jets exhibited elliptical cross-sections with divergence varying predictably between 0 and 13°. Nozzle aperture aspect ratios varied from 1.00 to 2.45, area was equivalent to that of a 6mm diameter circle. An elliptical jet was developed with 0.4° and 0.9° divergence in the major and minor axes, respectively. Performance of this elliptical nozzle was compared to that of a circular nozzle via profiled creep-feed grinding trials. Results indicate the circular nozzle performs similarly to the horizontal ellipse; the vertical ellipse frequently caused wheel breakdown. Optimized cutting parameters: wheel speed 23m/s, cut depth 1.78mm, feed rate 200mm/min, jet pressure 3.21MPa or greater. Experiments were performed on a Blohm Planomat 408 CNC grinding machine using CimTech 310 cutting fluid. Nozzle experiments used a Brix concentration of 6.1%, grinding experiments used 3.1%.

A dual-axis fluidic thrust vectoring (FTV) system is proposed where the supersonic propulsive jet of an aircraft is exhausted over a scarfed (swept), curved surface to produce flight control moments in both the pitch and yaw axes. This work contributes towards practical dual-axis FTV through expansion of fundamental curved-wall jet (CWJ) understanding, development of the novel Superimposed Characteristics technique for supersonic nozzle design, and performance evaluation of an experimental scarfed curved wall FTV configuration. Previous work has suggested that the use of a sheared exhaust velocity profile improves the attachment of supersonic jets to curved surfaces; however, evidence to support this is limited. To address this, an inviscid numerical CWJ model was developed using the two-dimensional method of characteristics. A major outcome is improved understanding of the effect of exhaust velocity profile on CWJ wave structure and subsequent jet attachment. A sheared velocity exhaust is shown to generate a wave structure that diminishes adverse streamwise pressure gradients within a supersonic curved-wall jet. This reduces the likelihood of boundary layer separation and as a result, a sheared exhaust velocity CWJ is expected to be less readily separated compared to other exhaust velocity profiles. A novel method termed Superimposed Characteristics was developed for the low-order design of supersonic nozzles with rectangular exits. The technique is capable of generating 3D nozzle geometries based on independent exit plane orientation and exhaust velocity distribution requirements. The Superimposed Characteristics method was used to design scarfed rectangular exit nozzles with sheared velocity exhaust profiles. These nozzles were then evaluated using finite volume computational methods and experimental methods. From the analysis, the Superimposed Characteristics method is shown to be valid for preliminary nozzle design. Experimental methods were used to study the on- and off-design attachment qualities of uniform and sheared velocity exhaust jets for a FTV configuration with an external curved wall termination angle of 90 degrees and scarf angle of 30 degrees. Experiments at the on-design nozzle pressure ratio (NPR) of 3.3 demonstrated pitch and yaw jet deflection angles of 78 degrees and 23 degrees respectively for the uniform exhaust velocity CWJ. The sheared exhaust velocity CWJ achieved lower pitch and yaw deflection angles of 34 degrees and 14 degrees respectively at the same on-design NPR. The lower jet deflection angles observed for sheared exhaust velocity jets is inconsistent with the CWJ model prediction of reduced adverse streamwise pressure gradients; however, there was insufficient experimental instrumentation to identify the cause. In the off-design experiments, the uniform exhaust velocity CWJ was observed to detach at an NPR of 3.6, whilst the sheared exhaust velocity CWJ remained attached at NPRs in excess of 4. The capability of sheared exhaust velocity CWJs to remain attached at higher NPRs is consistent with the analytical theory and the CWJ model predictions. An actuation study was carried out to achieve controlled jet detachment using secondary blowing injected normal to the curved wall. Full separation of the wall jets was achieved downstream of the injection point. This provided vectoring angles of more than 20 degrees in pitch and 10 degrees in yaw, exceeding expected vectoring requirements for practical aircraft control. At the on-design NPR, the uniform and sheared exhaust velocity jets required secondary blowing mass flow rates of 2.1% and 3.8% of the primary mass flow respectively to achieve full separation.

This thesis aims to investigate whether additive manufacturing is applicable in manufacturing the 1N thruster option that Bradford Ecaps offers. Therefore, the nozzle design is of particular interest as AM provides accessibilities to manufacturing complex structures. The current Ecaps 1N thruster has an operating thrust lifespan that exceeds the required lifespan commonly needed for the majority of customers. With AM, an increase in production throughput and optimization of nozzle design is possible. A candidate material, a platinum group metal, was picked for a future 1N thruster prototype concerning the limiting operating constraints. Computational fluid analysis was performed to investigate different contour nozzles to investigate the possibility of improving the performance of the Bradford ECAPS 1N thruster. AMATLAB code was developed to model the contour nozzles, and ANSYS Fluent was used for the computational analysis. Three different nozzle geometries were evaluated to investigate the overall performance of the expanding exhaust gas and thrust properties in vacuum conditions. Configuration 1. which had an extended nozzle was selected as a solution since it eliminatedthe interferences with the continuum. The Nasa CEA code was used to generate the fluid gas properties. No substantial performance gain was observed for the 1N thruster. This was found to be due to the boundary-dominated flow exhibited in the nozzle. A conical nozzle was found to work comparatively well. / Detta examensarbete syftar till att undersöka om additiv tillverkning (AM) är tillämplig vid tillverkning av Bradford Ecaps 1N raketmotor. Därför är munstycksdesignen av särskilt intresse eftersom AM ger möjlighet för tillverkning av komplexa strukturer. Den nuvarande Ecaps 1N-motorn har en livslängd som överstiger den livslängd som krävs för de flesta kunder. Med AM är ökning av produktionsgenomströmningen och optimering av munstycksdesign möjlig. Ett kandidatmaterial, en metall i platinagruppen, valdes ut för en framtida 1N prototyp med hänvisning till de begränsande driftsbegränsningarna. Beräkningsflödesanalys utfördes för att undersöka olika konturmunstycken för att undersöka möjligheten till att förbättra prestandan hos Bradford ECAPS 1N framdrivningssystem. En MATLAB-kod utvecklades för att modellera konturmunstyckena och ANSYS Fluent användes för beräkningsanalysen. Tre olika munstycksgeometrier utvärderades för att undersöka den totala prestandan hos de expanderande avgaserna och dragkraftsegenskaperna under vakuumförhållanden. Konfiguration 1. som hade ett förlängt munstycke valdes som en lösning eftersom detta eliminerade interferenserna med kontinuumet. Nasa CEA-koden användes för att generera fluidens gasegenskaper. Ingen betydande prestandaökning observerades för 1N motorn. Detta visade sig bero på det gränsskiktsdominerade flödet som uppvisades i munstycket. Ett koniskt munstycke visade sig fungera relativt bra.

<p dir="ltr">Powder Sprays such as Direct Energy Deposition and Cold Spray are rapidly growing and promising manufacturing methods in the Additive Manufacturing field, as they allow easy and localized delivery of powder to be fused to a substrate and consecutive layers. The relatively small size of nozzles allows for these methods to be mounted on CNC machines and Robotic Arms for the creation of complex shapes. However, these manufacturing methods are inherently stochastic, and therefore differences in powder size, shape, trajectory, and velocity can drastically affect whether they will deposit on a substrate. This variation results in an inherent reduction of deposition efficiency, leading to waste and the need for powder collection or recycling systems. The design of the nozzles can drastically affect the variation of powder trajectory and velocity on a holistic level, and thus understanding the gas-powder flow of these nozzles in respect to the features of said nozzles is crucial. This paper proposes and examines how changes in the nozzle geometry affect gas-powder flow and powder focusing for Direct Energy Deposition and Cold Spray. In addition, a new Pulsed Cold Spray nozzle design is proposed that will control the amount of gas and powder used by the nozzle via solenoid actuation. By making these changes to the nozzle, it is possible to improve deposition efficiency and reduce powder/gas waste in these processes, while also allowing for improved coating density. Furthermore, the research done in this thesis will also focus on novel applications to powder spray manufacturing methods, focusing on polymer metallization and part identification.</p>