Effect of dielectric barrier discharge methane reforming products on the combustion performance of rocket engine

Abstract

Although the low-thrust liquid oxygen/methane rocket engine has broad application prospects, the low flame propagation speed and low combustion rate of methane fuel make the liquid oxygen/methane engine still face key technical challenges. Methane fuel is partially converted into hydrogen and ethane with higher combustion rate before being injected into the combustion chamber, which is positive for the use of dielectric barrier to improve the combustion performance of the engine. Therefore, this paper studies the effect of the main four products of dielectric barrier discharge reforming with methane conversion rate of 10%, on the flow field of the combustion chamber. The results show that the addition of reforming products can effectively improve the combustion efficiency of the engine. H2 in the reforming product can also improve the specific impulse performance of the engine by increasing the total pressure of the engine chamber. C2H4 will not affect the maximum temperature of the engine, However, it can expand the medium-high temperature range of engine temperature to different degrees. The addition of H2 accelerates the oxygen consumption rate, which provides a feasible way to reduce the design size of the engine and improve the combustion efficiency of the low-thrust engine.