High-Pressure Nozzle Bank for a Chemical Oxygen Iodine Laser

A new nozzle bank for an ejector-chemical oxygen-iodine laser consisting of two-dimensional slit nozzles with a trip-jet mixing system was designed, fabricated, and tested with a nitrogen flow operation regime. Computational fluid dynamics (CFD) was used to optimize the trip system design. Horizontal Pitot scan experiments demonstrated that the mixing ability of the trips is excellent. The Mach number of the mixed flow was approximately 3. The average Pitot pressure at the laser cavity was more than 100 Torr. Backpressure tests were conducted, and the results of these tests revealed that the static pressure in the cavity remains constant at approximately 10 Torr until the supersonic diffuser breaks back and the cavity unstarts at a backpressure of approximately 80 Torr.