Eventos Anais de eventos
COBEM 2023
27th International Congress of Mechanical Engineering
COMBUSTION SIMULATION OF A PARAFFIN BASED SOLID FUEL WITH GASEOUS OXYGEN INSIDE A HYBRID ROCKET MOTOR
Submission Author:
Paulo Gabriel Cunha Martins , SP
Co-Authors:
Paulo Gabriel Cunha Martins, Rene Gonçalves, Leonardo Henrique Gouvêa, Cristiane Aparecida Martins
Presenter: Paulo Gabriel Cunha Martins
doi://10.26678/ABCM.COBEM2023.COB2023-2133
Abstract
For the last two decades, the hybrid rocket propulsion community has researched paraffin-based fuels because it offers high values of regression rate compared to traditional fuels commonly used, such as hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene or polyethylene. However, Paraffin does not have good mechanical properties, which increases the risk of grain cracking and rupturing. This work presents a simulation performed at ANSYS Fluent of the combustion process of a 100 newtons lab-scale hybrid rocket motor present in LTF ITA. The propellants of this hybrid rocket motor are paraffin wax and gaseous oxygen. The simulations utilize a mesh with around 100000 quadrilaterals elements, with an average orthogonal quality of 96.5% and an average skewness of 1%. The volume domain of the simulations is axis-symmetric. Paraffin is studied as hexadecane C16H34 using a reduced reaction mechanism of diesel from “Creck-modeling” at the gas phase. The simulations are at a steady state at different periods during the propulsion. Three simulations are present at times of 0, 5, and 10 of the hybrid rocket motor operation. The results analyzed are temperature, pressure, velocity, and some species profiles inside the hybrid rocket motor. The nozzle and the plume of the exhaust product gases are also present. The results did contribute to the understanding of the burning process during tests. The simulations did help during the project of a lab-scale hybrid rocket motor, which now operates with paraffin wax and other paraffin-based blends with gaseous oxygen.
Keywords
hybrid rocket motor, Combustion simulation, Paraffin and gaseous oxygen, k-$\omega$ SST turbulence model, Nozzle analysis
