scope:

The interaction of rocket exhaust plumes with the external vehicle flowfield has been the source of numerous problems on the Space Shuttle - both on the launch vehicle during ascent and the orbiter during re-entry (which, from a System Engineering and Integration (SE&I) point of view, is relevant to ascent aborts). Experience throughout the Space Shuttle Program (SSP) has been that plume induced effects are almost always detrimental to vehicle performance or operational efficiency. While modern computational methods have evolved significantly since the beginning of the Shuttle program, the nature of plume/flowfield interactions stretches the capability of even the most complex computational fluid dynamics (CFD) solvers. Ultimately, plume interaction effects are typically very challenging to simulate and predict - whether analytically or empirically - and, as a result, the accuracy of these predictions is generally subject to relatively large uncertainties.