Thermal performance of MMH/NTO rocket thrust chamber based on pintle injector by using liquid film cooling

Abstract

A liquid rocket engine needs to be protected against damage of the combustion chamber wall during operation, being exposed to high temperature and pressure gas conditions. It is in urge to design a simple and efficient thermal protection method to cool the wall of the thrust chamber. In present study, a liquid rocket engine CFD model with cooling holes in the upstream side of the thrust chamber wall was established and the propellant combustion performance of monomethylhydrazine (MMH) and nitrogen tetroxide (NTO) was simulated by a simplified multi-step chemical reaction mechanism. The liquid cooling performance of thrust chamber wall was numerically investigated by using the discrete phase model coupled with the wave breakup model and the convection/diffusion controlled model, in which the liquid film coolant is regarded as the discrete phase particles by considering the entrainment and evaporation of liquid coolant droplets in hot combustion gas. The effects of pintle head diameter Dp, oxidant slot height h0 and coolant consumption ratio on liquid cooling performance were discussed. The results demonstrated that smaller Dp and h0 can help to improve the characteristic velocity of the thrust chamber. As the coolant ratio increases from 18% to 24%, the maximum wall temperature of the thrust chamber is reduced by 11% (212 K) with only a 1.3% reduction in characteristic velocity (combustion performance). The present numerical method and results can provide important guidance for liquid film cooling design of the liquid rocket engine based on pintle injector.