Numerical Solution and Experimental Validation on the Flow Property of Gel Propellants in Round Pipes

Abstract

To describe detailedly the flowing process and field of gel propellants in the round pipe, the experiments of the gel flowing in the tubes were conducted and the governing equations of the steady, incompressible, isothermal, laminar flow of a power-law, shear-thinning gel propellants in 3D pipe were formulated, discretized and solved. The results indicate that pressure drop per unit length increases with decreasing the tube diameter as well as increasing the mass flow rate, and the liquidity of gel is more difficultly than water, and the wall-slip effect of the tube flowing for gel propellants must be considered. The results indicate also that the velocity increases as the flow moves downstream as well as with decreasing the tube diameter, and the apparent viscosity decreases as the flow moves downstream, and the apparent viscosity on the radial center is the maximum. For the same tube geometry, the apparent viscosity at the exit plane decreases with increasing the mass flow rate. For the same tube length and the same mass flow rate, increasing the tube diameter results in an increase of the apparent viscosity at the exit plane.