INCAS Bulletin (Dec 2023)

Joint design and simulation of GOX-GCH4 combustion and cooling in an experimental water-cooled subscale rocket engine

  • Alexandru MEREU,
  • Dragos ISVORANU

DOI
https://doi.org/10.13111/2066-8201.2023.15.4.13
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 15, no. 4
pp. 159 – 167

Abstract

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This paper presents the authors’ most recent research regarding the feasibility of cooling a 1 kN scaled-down experimental rocket engine, running on gaseous oxygen and gaseous methane, for a ground test. The cooling segment of a rocket engine has always been a delicate problem, increasing the development time and costs of development. Since a series of problems can occur during the first ignition of a rocket engine prototype, removing as many potential issues from the initial test, such as using liquid methane for the cooling system, could result in a more stable experiment. Using water as the cooling agent can contribute to a more accelerated TRL increase of the engine’s subcomponents while reducing the risks taken for a whole assembly test. Thus, the combustion chamber, nozzle, and injector can be tested separately from the final cooling method, which can be added subsequently. In the present work, both a steady and transient CFD combustion simulation of a multicomponent compound, consisting of gaseous oxygen and gaseous methane was conducted in the combustion chamber of a small-scale rocket engine. The simulation is based on PDF-flamelet approach for the oxygen and methane combustion, along with real gas equations for the cooling agent.

Keywords