The nozzle forms a large segment of the rocket engine structure, and as a whole, the performance of a rocket largely depends upon its aerodynamic design. The principal parameters in this context are the shape of the nozzle contour and the nozzle area expansion ratio. A careful shaping of the nozzle contour can lead to a high gain in its performance. As a consequence of intensive research, the design and the shape of rocket nozzles have undergone a series of development over the last several decades. The notable among them are conical, bell, plug, expansion-deflection and dual bell nozzles, besides the recently developed multi nozzle grid. However, to the best of authors’ knowledge, no article has reviewed the entire group of nozzles in a systematic and comprehensive manner. This paper aims to review and bring all such development in one single frame. The article mainly focuses on the aerodynamic aspects of all the rocket nozzles developed till date and summarizes the major findings covering their design, development, utilization, benefits and limitations. At the end, the future possibilities of development are also recommended.

喷嘴构成了火箭发动机结构的很大一部分，总的来说，火箭的性能在很大程度上取决于其空气动力学设计。在这种情况下，主要参数是喷嘴轮廓的形状和喷嘴面积膨胀率。精心设计喷嘴轮廓可以提高其性能。作为深入研究的结果，在过去的几十年中，火箭喷嘴的设计和形状经历了一系列的发展。其中，除了最近开发的多喷嘴网格外，还有圆锥形，钟形，塞形，膨胀变形和双钟形喷嘴。但是，据作者所知，没有文章以系统和全面的方式审查整个喷嘴组。本文旨在回顾所有这些发展并将其纳入一个框架。本文主要关注迄今开发的所有火箭喷嘴的空气动力学方面，并总结涵盖其设计，开发，利用，益处和局限性的主要发现。最后，还建议了未来的发展可能性。