Computations of a Compressible Turbulent Flow in a Rocket Motor-Chamber Configuration with Symmetric and Asymmetric Injection

Abstract

In the present paper, the characteristics of compressible turbulent flow in a porous channels subjected to either symmetric or asymmetric mass injection are numerically predicted. A numerical computer-program including different tur- bulence models has been developed by the present authors to investigate the con- sidered flow. The numerical method is based on the control volume approach to solve the governing Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations. Turbu- lence modeling plays a significant role here, in light of the complex flow generated, so several popular engineering turbulence models with good track records are eval- uated, including five different turbulence models. Numerical results with available experimental data showed that the flow evolves significantly with the distance from the front wall such that different regimes of flow development can be observed. The comparison between these computational models with experimental data for the axial velocity profiles and turbulent stresses is performed. The best numerical results are obtained from the shear-stress transport k w model (SST k w) and v 2 f turbulence models as well. Although the v 2 f turbulence model generates fair results compared to the experimental ones, it needs little bit improvement to be reliable to treat this kind of complex flows. However, because of the high cost and long computation time required with using either the family of k w or v 2 f as well as the Reynolds Stress Model (RSM), the family of k e turbulence model still produces the behavior of turbulent flow in such complex turbulence structure with lowest cost and fair results.