Validation of Soave–Redlich–Kwong equation of state coupled with a classical mixing rule for sound speed of non-ideal gas mixture of oxygen-hydrogen as liquid rocket propellants

Abstract

Numerical simulations of inlet jets flow of propellants in the main combustion chamber equipped in a liquid rocket engine have been conducted by compressible CFD technics employing a van der Waals-type equation of state (EOS) and chemical reaction models. Various simulations have been already conducted both for combustion and non-combustion state in the chamber; however, the accuracy of EOS for the mixture of propellant employing a classical mixing rule (CMR), particularly for the sound speed, has not been understood well. Therefore, we have validated the applicability of Soave–Redlich–Kwong (SRK) EOS as one of the van der Waals-type EOSs coupled with the CMR for the sound speed using molecular dynamics (MD) simulations against an imaginary model of oxygen-hydrogen mixture system. We found that SRK EOS coupled with a well-employed CMR can reproduce the sound speed in the MD simulations within a relative error of several percent and that the CMR hardly increases the deviation of the SRK EOS in the single component. The present results suggest that the SRK EOS with the CMR cannot be the main factor to cause critical errors in the CFD based on RANS, which will give reliability to current CFD simulations for internal flows in a combustion chamber of a liquid rocket engine.

Keywords

• liquid rocket propellants
• mixture
• equation of state
• classical mixing rule
• molecular dynamics