Afterburning effect on the thermal environment of the launch pad during the rocket launching

Abstract This study aims to investigate how afterburning affects the thermal environment of the launch pad during a rocket launch. The thermal environment and launch pad flow field are studied using numerical simulations during the vehicle lift-off phase to achieve this goal. The launch vehicle exhaust plume model is constructed during the lift-off phase using the reaction model, the Realizable k-ε two-equation turbulence model, and the three-dimensional compressible Navier-Stokes equations. The results of the investigation demonstrate that the temperature field of the rocket exhaust plume is higher in the gas chemical reaction flow scenario compared to the frozen flow scenario. In addition, considering both the frozen and gas chemical reaction flows causes the launch pad surface temperature to rise. The research approach used in this study sheds important light on the launch pad’s thermal protection design.