Numerical study of the impact and aggregation characteristics of alumina droplets on a wall in the solid rocket motor

Abstract

The impact and aggregation of multiple alumina droplets on the inner wall of the solid rocket motor may generate a larger rebound aggregated droplet or adhere to the wall to form a liquid film. The rebound and adhesion characteristics of the aggregated droplet are of great significance for slag deposition and two-phase flow prediction in the motor. In this paper, the VOF (Volume of fluid) method is used to study the impact and aggregation process of multiple alumina droplets on the wall. Detailed numerical verifications are carried out, including the impact and aggregation of moving droplets, the aggregation and rebound of stationary droplets and the impact process of a single alumina droplet on the wall. It is found that the aggregated droplet will rotate when two droplets aggregate under small droplet diameter ratio, which is caused by the asymmetry aggregation process. The oscillation process intensifies when three droplets impact and aggregate on the wall, as a result, the aggregated droplet is easier to adhere to the wall. The viscous dissipation in the aggregation of droplets is huge, and the total viscous dissipation energy accounts for about 50% of the total energy when the aggregated droplets rebound. The influence of droplet diameter on the V⁎ (rebound recovery coefficient) of the aggregated droplet and the rebound/adhesion results are dominated by the viscosity effect. While the influence of the parameters involving the initial spatial arrangement of droplets is dominated by the oscillation process, which will reduce the effective rebound kinetic energy, making a lower V⁎ and the aggregated droplet easier to adhere.