Numerical analysis of combustion instability in liquid propellant rocket engine

Abstract

Numerical study of combustion instability in liquid propellant rocket engine is presented in the paper. Time-depending two-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations were employed to describe the fluid flow in the combust chamber and solved by finite difference method with MacCormack scheme. Turbulent viscosity was taken into consideration by the subgrid scale turbulence model. Propellant spray was treated with a lagrangian tracking method and droplet source terms were incorporated into the gas phase calculation by PSIC method. Droplet initial conditions were determined by a stochastic spray model . Spray burning rate is calculated by the classic D2 vaporization law with Ranz-Marshall correlation. The coupling of pressure disturb and burning rate variation was described with Prime's twoparameter model. The actual axisymmetric combustor was transferred into equivalent annular geometry as the references do. Combustion instability analysis was performed by imposing a bomb pressure pulse on the computed steady flow field to trigger unstable combustion. By observing the pressure wave propagation , we can asses the damping capability of the engine.The computational analysis show that numerical schemes and physical models used to describe unstable combustion are the most important factors to the success of numerical study. d NOMENCLATURE a sound velocity b annular combustor width constant pressure spcific heat CP C,, drag coefficient d droplet diameter D mass diffusivity e total energy f frequency h enthalpy 1 L~ heat of evaporation f i transverse length of the annular combstor mass flux or evaporation rate M number of computational droplet NU Nusselt number pr Prantdl number Ice Reynolds number s source terms time T lempeerature X,Y coordinates p density h coductivity P I velocity components