Numerical Estimation of Nozzle Throat Heat Flux in Oxygen-Methane Rocket Engines

Concio, Pierluigi; Migliorino, Mario Tindaro; Bianchi, Daniele; Nasuti, Francesco

doi:10.2514/1.b38811

Cited by 3 publications

(1 citation statement)

References 39 publications

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“…Methane and propane are two hydrocarbon fuels that are studied and used as rocket fuels and are also considered green propellants [14]. Especially with the advent of commercial rockets utilizing methane, LOX/liquid methane (LCH 4 ) engines have been studied extensively over the last two decades [15][16][17][18][19][20]. In some of these studies, 1-D regenerative cooling analyses of such engines were conducted.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Regenerative Cooling Comparison of LOX/LCH4 and LOX/LC3H8 Rocket Engines Using the One-Dimensional Regenerative Cooling Modelling Tool ODREC

Kose,

Celik

2023

Applied Sciences

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Due to the extreme temperatures inside the combustion chambers of liquid propellant rocket engines, the walls of the combustion chamber and the nozzle are cooled by either the fuel or the oxidizer in what is known as regenerative cooling. This study presents an indigenous computational tool developed for the analysis of heat transfer in regenerative cooling of such rocket engines. The developed tool incorporates a one-dimensional (1-D) combustion analysis to calculate the thermophysical properties of the combustion gas. Basic engine properties were calculated and used to generate a thrust chamber profile based on a bell-shaped nozzle. The hot gas side was analyzed using 1-D isentropic flow assumptions, along with heat transfer correlations. The coolant side was evaluated using the hydraulic analysis in the axial direction and the heat transfer analysis in the radial direction. Thermophysical properties and the phase of the coolant were determined using the given property tables and the instantaneous state of the coolant. This flexible and computationally less demanding tool was used to analyze two small-scale engines utilizing liquid hydrocarbon fuels, which are used in modern rocket propulsion. The wall cooling analyses of a liquid oxygen (LOX)/liquid methane (LCH4) engine and a liquid oxygen (LOX)/liquid propane (LC3H8) engine are presented. Fuel and oxidizer were used separately as coolants for both engines, and both of them experienced phase change. Results reveal the advantage of the high mass flow rate of the oxidizer in cooling performance. In addition, the results of this study show that the cooling of the LOX/LC3H8 engine is somewhat more challenging compared to the LOX/LCH4 engine.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Regenerative Cooling Comparison of LOX/LCH4 and LOX/LC3H8 Rocket Engines Using the One-Dimensional Regenerative Cooling Modelling Tool ODREC

Kose,

Celik

2023

Applied Sciences

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Design and Evaluation of Aerospike Nozzles for an Upper-Stage Application

Nasuti,

Fiore,

Messina

et al. 2024

Journal of Spacecraft and Rockets

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Aerospike nozzles are often studied because of their intrinsic self-adaptation behavior to the atmospheric pressure. Another unique feature of aerospike nozzles is their mass- and volume-efficient integration with the underlying vehicle. This latter aspect, if fully exploited, could be of interest for both lower stages operating in the atmosphere and for upper stages operating in vacuum. In this paper, a numerical analysis is carried out of the possible advantages of using an aerospike engine under specific volume constraints of a reference upper-stage configuration, discussing basic aspects of aerospike and internal expansion design, clustering, and plug truncation length. The results of the present preliminary analysis show the extent of possible performance advantages of aerospikes in terms of the specific impulse delivered for a given available volume for the nozzle with respect to a conventional bell configuration.

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Family of Skeletal Reaction Mechanisms for Methane–Oxygen Combustion in Rocket Propulsion

Liberatori,

Malpica Galassi,

Bianchi

et al. 2024

Journal of Propulsion and Power

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Analyzing methane–oxygen rocket propellant combinations requires suitable modeling of the major chemical reaction processes. Although several detailed kinetic mechanisms for methane oxidation in air exist, most do not reproduce the reaction pathways of high-pressure methane–oxygen combustion, typical of liquid rocket engines. Moreover, when large-scale computational fluid dynamics simulations are pursued, detailed reaction schemes are not computationally viable. In the present study, we identify a reliable detailed kinetic scheme for liquid rocket applications, and then we perform a wide reduction campaign leveraging computational singular perturbation theory. Enforcing various reduction targets, we obtain a family of seven skeletal schemes, including 11–39 species. Each mechanism targets different combustion modes, namely, homogeneous ignition, complex flows and flame extinction, premixed burning, reaction processes under intense turbulent mixing, and largely off-stoichiometric mixtures, typical of rocket engine preburners. We test the skeletal mechanisms against meaningful validation targets, attaining appreciable predictive accuracy compared with the detailed parent scheme. We expect the proposed family of skeletal schemes to offer a wide and flexible range of solutions—in terms of size, accuracy, and dominant combustion mode—for performing large-scale yet cost-affordable computational fluid dynamics of methane–oxygen flames under rocket-engine-relevant conditions.

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Numerical Estimation of Nozzle Throat Heat Flux in Oxygen-Methane Rocket Engines

Cited by 3 publications

References 39 publications

Regenerative Cooling Comparison of LOX/LCH4 and LOX/LC3H8 Rocket Engines Using the One-Dimensional Regenerative Cooling Modelling Tool ODREC

Regenerative Cooling Comparison of LOX/LCH4 and LOX/LC3H8 Rocket Engines Using the One-Dimensional Regenerative Cooling Modelling Tool ODREC

Design and Evaluation of Aerospike Nozzles for an Upper-Stage Application

Family of Skeletal Reaction Mechanisms for Methane–Oxygen Combustion in Rocket Propulsion

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