Numerical study on the performance of nozzle flow for supersonic chemical oxygen-iodine lasers

Abstract

Laser performance is greatly dependent on its operating conditions due to the strong coupling among multi-physics such as gas-dynamics, chemical reaction kinetics and optics in the mixing nozzle of COIL. In this paper, 3D CFD technology is used to simulate the mixing and reactive flow of subsonic cross jet scheme at different conditions. Results obtained show that the jet penetration depth plays a dominant role in the spatial distribution of small signal gains. In the case of over-penetration, unsteady flow structures are induced by impinging between the opposing jets. The optimum spatial distribution of the chemical performance cannot be obtained even if the full penetration condition is achieved through the subsonic transverse jet mixing scheme in the COIL nozzle flow.