Numerical study for the flame deflector design of four-engine liquid rockets

Abstract

The thermal environment of four-engine liquid rocket exhaust plume impinging on the flame deflector with different impingement and uplift angles is analysed. The supersonic exhaust gas impinging model was established by using the compressible, multi-component, Reynolds-Averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) equations with the finite volume method. A comparison between the numerical results and experimental data in the literature is made, which verified the validity and accuracy of the numerical model. Additionally, the flow fields of the four-engine rocket impinging on the flame deflector under different impingement and uplift angles are simulated. The results show that high temperatures on the deflector surface mainly occur on the impingement point or the cambered surface. A large impingement angle causes the reverse flow intensity to increase whilst a small angle causes the exhaust gas to deflect a little, a suitable uplift angle can smoothly guide the exhaust gas away from the deflector that the best thermal environment of the deflector channel appears at an impingement angle of 25°and an uplift angle of 5°. This study demonstrates that our model can effectively simulate the impinging flow field, and can be of use for the design of the flame deflector under the multi-engine rocket exhaust gas impact.