Improvements of the base bleed effect using reactive particles

A numerical study of the base drag reduction of axisymmetric body projectiles in supersonic flight using a base bleed injection is presented in this paper. Unsteady computations of compressible viscous flow have been achieved in order to investigate the coupled effect of the bleed temperature and the bleed mass flow rate on the base pressure. The idea developed in the study, consists in the addition of metallic particles in the propellant composition used to provide the additional mass injected in order to obtain the lowest base drag. Indeed, for a low mass addition, a significant increase of the mixture energy is expected due to the particles combustion. Base flow with reactive two-phase injection is then simulated. Results show the ability of the method to describe such flows and the efficiency of the particles combustion to increase the base bleed reducing drag effect.