Numerical Simulation of Coolant Temperature Rise by Copper Metal foam Insert in Water-cooled Air-Kerosene Combustion Gas Heated Cooling Channel

Abstract

In the present article, the application of copper metal foam in the cooling channels of a water cooled air-kerosene combustion gas heated test bench model that partially recreates a section of liquid rocket motor cooling system is numerically simulated. It helps to study the influence of copper metal foam inserts on coolant temperature rise, pressure and velocity. In the first case, the problem of conjugate heat transfer from the test bench to the coolant without copper metal foam is analyzed using coupled CFD analysis in ANSYS work bench. Subsequently, a second micro-analysis is conducted by introducing a single cell of heated copper foam into the coolant using the results obtained from the first case. This micro-analysis is repeated for different flow velocity magnitudes of the coolant inlet flows. The results show positive contribution in the overall temperature rise of the coolant. Additionally, the micro-analysis also shows that, as the velocity of coolant increases the overall temperature rise of the coolant decreases and the results are presented here graphically.

Keywords

• CFD; Copper metal foam; Open cell metal foam; Heat transfer analysis.