Computational analysis of a single-element, shear-coaxial, GH2/GO2 engine

Abstract

Abstract : A computational and experimental program of research in gas/gas injection has been initiated in support of staged combustion cycle engines. The overall objective of this research is to develop a design methodology for gas/gas injectors. This paper, however, focuses on a computational methodology to efficiently, accurately, and robustly obtain high-fidelity solutions of combusting rocket engine flows to gain a knowledge and understanding of their features. To that end, simulations of a single-element, shear-coaxial, H2/O2 engine are being performed to characterize its flow field and to validate the CFD% flow' solver for this class of problems. Thus far, solutions have been obtained on a grid containing 53740 cells, three to four times the number of cells used by other researchers,1,2 using four and eight processors on an SGI Origins 2000 computer. The code solves the two-dimensional, compressible, real gas equations with a second-order accurate spatial discretization scheme. Currently, a standard, realizable k-epsilon turbulence model is employed to resolve the turbulent mixing, and the constant-pressure combustion model is used in combination with a 9 species, 19 reactions finite-rate kinetics model.