Simulation of Liquid Fuel Combustion of a Rocket Engine

Abstract

For a successful ignition, the ignition should happen at the right time and place. If the ignition is not performed correctly, then substantial damage can occur both within and outside the engine surface. During ignition, the propellants should mix in a proper proportion. During the injection of propellant, the pressure and temperature are generally in subcritical condition. When they are injected inside the combustion chamber, they rapidly grow and transform into supercritical. The combustor shape is utilized to reduce the intention mixture rate and the computational domain encompasses the portion of this design. This is studied in this work by varying the inlet angles of the fuel. By changing the inlet angles (2.5, 5 and 7.5), the initial ignition time can be reduced. The simulations are done using ANSYS Fluent. The initial turbulence is reduced up to a certain angle and then, it starts decreasing. In the same way, the difference is observed in chamber pressure which rapidly increases, followed by a decrease. It can be concluded that 5 angle shows better performance in terms of pressure and velocity turbulence.