A computational study of gas flow in a De‐Laval micronozzle at different throat diameters

A numerical study has been carried out to investigate the gas flows in a micronozzle using a continuum model under both slip and no‐slip boundary conditions. The governing equations were solved with a finite volume method. The numerical model was validated with available experimental data. Numerical results of exit thrust showed good agreement with experimental data except at very low Reynolds numbers. For parametric studies on the effect of geometric scaling, the nozzle throat diameter was varied from 10 to 0.1 mm, whereas throat Reynolds number was varied from 5 to 2000. A correlation has also been developed to calculate the specific impulse at specified throat diameter and Reynolds number. The effect of different gases on the specific impulse of the nozzle, such as helium, nitrogen, argon and carbon dioxide, was also examined. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.