Abstract
The LOX/methane engine has an admirable performance under a supercritical state. However, the properties of methane change drastically with varying injection temperature. Because the injector can greatly affect the atomization and combustion, this study performed a three-dimensional numerical simulation of atomization, combustion, and heat transfer in a subscale LOX/methane engine to evaluate the effect of the main fluid parameters with different methane injection temperatures and different injectors on atomization performance and combustion performance. The results show that the larger propellant momentum ratio and Weber number can improve the heat flux and combustion stability in shear coaxial injector, while the influence in swirl coaxial injector is relatively small. Moreover, in shear coaxial injector and in swirl coaxial injector, the larger propellant momentum ratio and Weber number can reduce the droplet size, enhance atomization performance, and improve the combustion efficiency. The numerical model provides an economical method to evaluate the main fluid parameters and proposes new design principles of injectors in LOX/methane engine.
Highlights
In recent years, the reusable launch vehicle (RLV) has become the spotlight of aerospace industry, and the LOX/methane rocket engine is considered its appropriate power [1,2,3]
The eight cases with different fluid parameters are carried out, and the results show that fluid parameters such as the propellant momentum ratio, the Weber number, and the Reynolds number have noticeable influence on combustion and atomization characteristics
This paper establishes a three-dimensional numerical model based on a typical subscale LOX/methane engine, which has been verified by the experiments in the literature
Summary
The reusable launch vehicle (RLV) has become the spotlight of aerospace industry, and the LOX (liquid oxygen)/methane rocket engine is considered its appropriate power [1,2,3]. Yatsuyanagi [12] found the optimal design for the injector geometry parameters in shear coaxial injector by investigating the combustion stability and the combustion efficiency. Because the heat flow is an important indicator of the thermal protection design, Song and Sun [13] evaluated the influence of recessed length on wall heat loads with shear coaxial injector, and the results showed the injector recesses raised the heat flux. The atomization performance is a significant indicator for evaluating the capability of the injector, which can be represented by the size and spatial distribution of the droplet; many related studies have been carried out [14]. The above works show that combustion efficiency, heat flux, combustion stability, and atomization performance can be important indicators in the investigation of the injector
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