A novel model of liquid film flow and evaporation for thermal protection to a chamber with high temperature and high shear force

Abstract

Thin liquid film evaporation is a prevailing cooling technique for thermal protection to the inner wall of a chamber with high-intensity combustion. A novel model is developed to investigate the flow and evaporation of liquid film in a rocket combustion chamber with high temperature and high shear force, in which shear stress at the interface between liquid film and high temperature combustion gas with high velocity, capillary pressure of liquid and disjoining pressure associated with liquid film evaporation are taken into account. A numerical algorithm of the backward solution is deliberately adopted to solve this model so as to eliminate the entrance effect caused by different inlet conditions of liquid film. For given temperature and hot gas rate in a chamber, a stably evolution regime of liquid film with the thickness from thick to thin is depicted corresponding to the total process of being sheared into film and being evaporated to dryness. Results indicate that the three forces mentioned above play critical parts in flowing and evaporating of liquid film during its different evolution regimes. It was shown that shear stress and capillary pressure have a positive effect on the flow and evaporation of film, as well as a negative effect from the disjoining pressure. The effects of these forces are different dependent on different initial average thickness of film, and the distribution profile of these forces are totally illustrated in detailed. The prediction of liquid film length, from being injected to being evaporated, by the proposed model is in a good agreement with available experimental data. All findings are expected to provide a fundamental guideline for the design and optimization of efficient thermal protect to the combustion chamber of space engine.