Study of the unusable liquid propellant residues evaporation processes parameters in the tanks of the launch vehicle expended stage in microgravity

Abstract

A method is proposed for studying the evaporation process of unusable rocket propellant (RP) residues in an expended stage (ES) under weightless conditions. Two options were considered as boundary conditions for liquid RP residues: a) liquid drop distribution in N identical drops, whose surface decreases during evaporation and b) the liquid distribution in the lower tank bottom and the mirror presence, whose area decreases during evaporation. A high-temperature stream of hydrogen peroxide decomposition products is used as a heat carrier (HC) fed to the fuel tank. The physical and mathematical model of the liquid evaporation process is based on the first thermodynamics law. Based on the analysis of the Frud and Grashof criteria, the assumption that there is no convection movement inside the drop (Rayleigh number is less than critical) for both boundary conditions variants, the heat transfer coefficient of the gas-vapor mixture (GVM) produced in the tank is determined due to the regression dependence obtained under ground conditions as a function of the Nusselt, Reynolds and Prandtl numbers. GVM parameters for the considered boundary conditions variants and the proposed physical mathematical model are compared with the results obtained earlier for the boundary conditions variant of uniform fluid distribution over the inner tank wall (third boundary conditions variant) and the boundary layer theory usage based on integral impulses, energy and diffusion ratios. The thermophysical GVM parameters and the GVM exhaust velocity for oxygen and kerosene are provided for two boundary conditions types, using the example of Soyuz-2.1.v type fuel tanks. The total mass of the RP residues evaporation system structure is less than 1.3% of the total “dry” ES design mass.