Serpentine and furrowed wavy channels-based enhancement in heat transfer for a rocket engine chamber

Abstract

The thermal protection of the rocket engine combustion chamber is one of the fundamental challenges in supersonic flight. This paper investigates serpentine and furrowed wavy cooling channels with a rectangular cross-section to enhance heat transfer performance and hydrogen turbulent fluid flow characteristics. Ansys fluent was used to investigate the effects of configuration, wavy amplitude, and channel wavelength on the heat wall temperature, Nusselt number, coolant velocity, pressure drop, turbulent kinetic energy, and thermal stratification phenomena. Four different wave amplitudes and three wavelengths are compared to determine the optimal structure required to achieve the best heat transfer enhancement with acceptable pressure drop. Compared to the straight channel, the maximum temperature of the furrowed channel (Case 6) was decreased by 15.38% at an amplitude of 0.2 mm. Furthermore, the thermal performance factor is evaluated for eight furrowed wavy structures. The result is shown that the structure with an amplitude of 0.2 mm and a wavelength of 1 mm (Case 6) can demonstrate better thermal performance, which is increased by 31.55% compared to the straight channel. The wavy surfaces cause separation in diverging zones and secondary flows in converging zones, which disturbs the boundary layer, enhances particle mixing and improves convective heat transfer.