Eventos Anais de eventos
COBEM 2023
27th International Congress of Mechanical Engineering
One-Dimensional Numerical Analysis of a 5 kN Liquid Propellant Rocket Engine Combustion Chamber Using Ethanol/LOX
Submission Author:
Cesar Addis Valverde Salvador , RS
Co-Authors:
Luiz Henrique Schaffazick, Cesar Addis Valverde Salvador, FERNANDO DE SOUZA COSTA, Marcio Teixeira de Mendonca
Presenter: Luiz Henrique Schaffazick
doi://10.26678/ABCM.COBEM2023.COB2023-0675
Abstract
Liquid bipropellant propulsion systems are widely used in launch rockets for their high thrust and specific impulse, increased operational and storage safety, and improved combustion control compared to solid propellant systems. In recent years, studies on green propulsion have become increasingly common due to the advantages it offers, such as lower pollutant emissions, low toxicity, reduced environmental impact, higher operational safety, lower propellant storage and handling costs, improved safety, and energy independence. Green propellants are cleaner and more sustainable compared to traditional chemical propellants. This work presents a numerical study of a 5 kN liquid rocket engine combustion chamber, which uses Ethanol and LOX as propellants. For the simulations, a one-dimensional, reactive, multiphase, and steady-state mathematical model of combustion in a combustion chamber was used. The model considers that the chemical reaction is faster than droplet vaporization, so that the propellant vapors mix and react instantaneously. The model also accounts for combustion at subcritical pressures, non-uniform fuel and oxidizer droplet size distributions, droplet preheating, heat losses from gas to chamber walls and droplets, different droplet and gas velocities, as well as the effect of deformation on droplet drag. Discrete portions of droplets with characteristic mean diameters are considered to represent the Rosin-Rammler distribution function, thus allowing the estimation of the vaporization length of a bipropellant spray under various conditions. The combustion products include 5 main species (CO2, CO, H2O, H2, and O2) and 3 secondary species (H, OH, and O). The obtained results allow evaluating the influence of pressure, propellant temperatures, equivalence ratio, number of propellant droplet portions, and Rosin-Rammler parameters on the complete vaporization distance. Theoretical values of vaporization distance and temperatures were determined and compared to data from the European project PERSEUS
Keywords
Liquid propellants, numerical model, ethanol, Combustion Chamber, Green Propellants
