Numerical Analysis of Solid Propellant Ignition ~Numerical Formulation Assessment~

For a simple one-dimensional ignition problem a mathematical model is described to investigate the difficulties in numerical simulations. Some computation results are obtained and comparison is made with analytical solution. Discussions are made on topics such as 1) coordinate transformation, 2) gas-phase and solid-phase analysis; (divergence form of the governing system, a finite-volume discretization, implicit time integration, upwind split flux, spatial accuracy improvement are described. Mass, reagent mass, and energy conservations are solved.), and 3) method to determine quantities on the burning surface (matching). Results obtained for small values of the non-dimensional pressure show a steady-combustion and good agreement with the analytical solution. Numerical instability appeared for larger values of the pressure, discussion on the cause of the problem is made. This effort is a part of a study of flame spread phenomena on solid propellant surface.