MOC is a method used to design the nozzles.

Rao used the MOC to design a short nozzle with a wall contour that yields optimal thrust.

The conventional nozzles uses different contour designs till now Conical Nozzle :Its a simple design which allows ease of manufacture and flexibility in converting an existing design to higher or lower expansion ratio without major redesign. The configuration of a typical conical nozzle The nozzle throat section has the contour of a circular arc with radius R, ranging from 0.25 to 0.75 times the throat diameter Dt. The half-angle of the nozzle convergent cone section, , can range from 20 to 45 degrees. The divergent cone half-angle, , varies from approximately 12 to 25 degrees. The conical nozzle with a 15-degree divergent half-angle has become almost a standard because it is a good compromise on the basis of weight, length, and performance. There are divergence and performance losses as a result of the non-axial component of the exhaust gas velocity.

Ideal Nozzles :Ideal nozzles are designed by using MOC methods which produces a uniform exhaust flow. These ideal nozzles are designed for a particular exit Mach number(or Pressure ratio). The MOC method produces nozzles of large lengths because the exit part of the contour with minor inclination needed to obtain uniform flow which offers highest performance. The thrust contribution of this end portion is negligible because of low wall slopes. Therefore, the nozzles are truncated to a certain length without any significant losses in performance because of non-uniformity of flow at the exit. Truncated ideal Contour(TIC) nozzles offers a high weight and length reduction with a relatively small performance loss, thereby rockets uses these type of nozzles. The Viking and RD-0120 uses truncated ideal nozzles. Minimum Length Nozzles(MLN) are designed to provide an optimal length by reducing the expansion section to a point such that a centered expansion fan is originates at throat point. There are two types of MLN of which one assumes a straight sonic line at throat and other a curved sonic line. Argraw and Emanuel showed that the lengths of these two types of axisymmetric MLNs are almost the same

Thrust-optimized nozzles : 1) Thrust Optimized Contour(TOC) : Rao developed a method of designing a contoured exhaust nozzle for optimum thrust for a given fixed length nozzle. Rao's solution used a variational optimization method using Lagrangian multipliers and method of characteristics. Typically, the length of Rao-type nozzles is 75%-85% of the length of 15o conical nozzle having the same area ratio.

2) Thrust Optimized Parabolic(TOP) : The Rao approximation method prescribes a set of parabolas that allow for a contour that is near the optimum thrust contours developed by his method. The appropriate parabola is chosen for nozzle contours designed with fractional nozzle length of a 15 degree half-angle conical nozzle, and the expansion area ratio. from these parameters. The parabola species the exit flow angle and the initial turning angle. The throat geometry is then found using a subsonic radius of curvature of 1.5rt and a supersonic radius of curvature of 0.382rt. The parabolic nozzles are specified by their fraction of conical nozzle length. The typical lengths used are 75%-85%length of 15o conical nozzles with same area ratio. SSME, Vulcain nozzle use Raos TOC and TOP nozzles.

References: Argraw, B. M., and Emanuel, G., "Comparison of Minimum Length Nozzles," Journal of Fluids Engineering, Vol. 1100, Sept. 1988, pp. 283-288. Frey.M., and Hagemann.G., Restricted Shock Separation in Rocket Nozzles, Journal of Propulsion and Power, AIAA paper, Vol.16, No.3, May-Jun 2000. S.M.Liang.,K.L.Huang., and K.C.Chen., Numerical Study of Low-Thrust nozzles for satellites, Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets, AIAA papar, Vol.33,No.5,Sep-Oct 1996.