Scaling study of the combustion performance of gasben gas rocket injectors

To obtain the key subelements that may influence the scaling of gas-gas injector combustor performance, the combustion performance subelements in a liquid propellant rocket engine combustor are initially analysed based on the results of a previous study on the scaling of a gas-gas combustion flowfield. Analysis indicates that inner wall friction loss and heat-flux loss are two key issues in gaining the scaling criterion of the combustion performance. The similarity conditions of the inner wall friction loss and heat-flux loss in a gas-gas combustion chamber are obtained by theoretical analyses. Then the theoretical scaling criterion was obtained for the combustion performance, but it proved to be impractical. The criterion conditions, the wall friction and the heat flux are further analysed in detail to obtain the specific engineering scaling criterion of the combustion performance. The results indicate that when the inner flowfields in the combustors are similar, the combustor wall shear stress will have similar distributions qualitatively and will be directly proportional to p_c^0.8 d_t^-0.2 quantitatively. In addition, the combustion peformance will remain unchanged. Furthermore, multi-element injector chambers with different geometric sizes and at different pressures are numerically simulated and the wall shear stress and combustion efficiencies are solved and compared with each other. A multi-element injector chamber is designed and hot-fire tested at several chamber pressures and the combustion performances are measured in a total of nine hot-fire tests. The numerical and experimental results verified the similarities among combustor wall shear stress and combustion performances at different chamber pressures and geometries, with the criterion applied.     

基于液体碳氢燃料的旋转爆轰燃烧特性研究

为了探索液体碳氢燃料参与旋转爆轰所产生的不完全燃烧现象,采用守恒元与求解元方法,开展柱坐标系下的汽油/空气两相旋转爆轰燃烧室三维数值模拟研究,针对燃料喷注压力和反应物当量比对旋转爆轰流场结构及燃烧室性能的影响进行分析。分析结果表明:保持总当量比为1.00,随着燃料喷注压力的上升,燃烧室内燃料不均匀分布增强,产生局部富燃区,燃料在燃烧室未能完全反应,导致燃烧室燃料比冲下降;保持喷注压力不变,减小当量比,在贫燃工况下依然存在局部富燃区,导致燃烧室内出现不完全燃烧现象,降低燃烧室比冲性能。由此可知,反应物喷注方案对气液两相旋转爆轰的不完全燃烧有显著影响。     

氢、碳氢燃料对向扩散火焰

对氢、正烷烃碳氢燃料与氧的对向扩散火焰,其中正烷烃包含了在工业用燃料中广泛应用的C_nH_2n+2正烷烃CH₄～C1₆H₃₄,对这些燃料的火焰结构进行了分析和比较,系统地分析了压力和拉伸率对火焰行为和热释放率等的影响,其中包含了2115个组分8157个可逆反应．研究结果表明,所有燃料的火焰厚度和热释放率与压力和拉伸率的乘积的平方根成线性关系．在相同工况下,氢的火焰厚度总是大于所有的碳氢燃料,而CH₄～C1₆H₃₄所有的碳氢燃料在相同工况下总是具有几乎相同的燃烧温度分布、燃烧产物分布、火焰厚度和热释放率,该结果表明由这些碳氢燃料组成的混合燃料具有同样的火焰特性.     

氢、碳氢燃料对向扩散火焰

A comprehensive analysis of hydrogen/oxygen and hydrocarbon/oxygen counterflow diffu-sion flames has been conducted using corresponding detailed reaction mechanisms. The hydrocarbon fuels contain n-alkanes from CH₄ to C₁₆H₃₄. The basic diffusion flame struc-tures are demonstrated, analyzed, and compared. The effects of pressure, and strain rate on the flame behavior and energy-release rate for each fuel are examined systematically. The de-tailed chemical kinetic reaction mechanisms from Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory(LLNL) are employed, and the largest one of them contains 2115 species and 8157 reversible reactions. The results indicate for all of the fuels the flame thickness and heat release rate correlate well with the square root of the pressure multiplied by the strain rate. Under the condition of any strain rate and pressure, H₂ has thicker flame than hydrocarbons, while the hydrocarbons have the similar temperature and main products distributions and almost have the same flame thickness and heat release rate. The result indicates that the fuels composed with these hydrocarbons will still have the same flame properties as any pure n-alkane fuel.     

Scaling of the flow field in a combustion chamber with agas——gas injector

The scaling of the flowfield in a gas--gas combustion chamber is investigated theoretically, numerically and experimentally. To obtain the scaling criterion of the gas--gas combustion flowfield, formulation analysis of the three-dimensional (3D) Navier--Stokes equations for a gaseous multi-component mixing reaction flow is conducted and dimensional analysis on the gas--gas combustion phenomena is also carried out. The criterion implies that the size and the pressure of the gas--gas combustion chamber can be changed. Based on the criterion, multi-element injector chambers with different geometric sizes and at different chamber pressures ranging from 3~MPa to 20~MPa are numerically simulated. A multi-element injector chamber is designed and hot-fire tested at five chamber pressures from 1.64~MPa to 3.68~MPa. Wall temperature measurements are used to understand the similarity of combustion flowfields in the tests. The results have verified the similarities between combustion flowfields under different chamber pressures and geometries, with the criterion applied.     

Scaling of heat transfer in gas-gas injector combustor

The scaling of heat transfer in gas-gas injector combustor is investigated theoretically, numerically and experimentally based on the previous study on the scaling of gas-gas combustion flowfield. The similarity condition of the gas-gas injector combustor heat transfer is obtained by conducting a formulation analysis of the boundary layer Navier-Stokes equations and a dimensional analysis of the corresponding heat transfer phenomenon. Then, a practicable engineering scaling criterion of the gas-gas injector combustor heat transfer is put forward. The criterion implies that when the similarity conditions of inner flowfield are satisfied, the size and the pressure of gas-gas combustion chamber can be changed, while the heat transfer can still be qualitatively similar to the distribution trend and quantitatively correlates well with the size and pressure as q ∝ pc0 .8d t-0.2. Based on the criterion, single-element injector chambers with different geometric sizes and at different chamber pressures ranging from 1 MPa to 20 MPa are numerically simulated. A single-element injector chamber is designed and hot-fire tested at seven chamber pressures from 0.92 MPa to 6.1 MPa. The inner wall heat flux are obtained and analysed. The numerical and experimental results both verified the scaling criterion in gas-gas injector combustion chambers under different chamber pressures and geometries.