Influence of flight acceleration on heat transfer and carbon deposits of aviation kerosene under supercritical conditions

Abstract

During the acceleration or escape of the hypersonic vehicle, the flight acceleration will have an important impact on heat and mass transfer characteristics of pyrolytic hydrocarbon fuel in the regenerative cooling channel of scramjet. Based on the detailed pyrolytic mechanism and coking kinetics model, numerical model was established to study the flight acceleration effect on flow field, fuel pyrolysis, heat transfer and carbon deposit of supercritical hydrocarbon fuel in the horizontal cooling channel. Results indicate that the secondary flow is induced in the cross-section of horizontal cooling channels because of the flight acceleration and density gradient. Due to the secondary flow, thermal and fuel conversion stratifications in the radial distribution increase. The bottom wall heat transfer coefficient is higher, while the wall temperature and carbon deposits are lower than that of the top wall. Meanwhile, with the increase of the flight acceleration, the thermal and fuel conversion stratifications become larger. The differences of heat transfer coefficient, wall temperature and carbon deposits between the top and bottom walls rise. The operating pressure enhances the flight acceleration effect on the heat transfer and carbon deposits. In addition, Petukhov’s criterion is proved to be applicable to evaluate the flight acceleration effect quantitatively.