Numerical Study of Rocket Exhaust Plume with Equilibrium Chemical Reaction and Thermal Radiation

평형화학반응과 복사열전달을 고려한 로켓 플룸 유동 해석

The Numerical study has been carried out to investigate the effects of chemical reaction and thermal radiation on the rocket plume flow-field at various altitudes. The theoretical formulation is based on the Navier-Stokes equations for compressible flows along with the infinitely fast chemistry and thermal radiation. The governing equations were solved by a finite volume fully-implicit TVD(Total Variation Diminishing) code which uses Roe's approximate Riemann solver and MUSCL(Monotone Upstream-centered Schemes for Conservation Laws) scheme. LU-SGS (Lower Upper Symmetric Gauss Seidel) method is used for the implicit solution strategy. An equilibrium chemistry module for hydrocarbon mixture with detailed thermo-chemical properties and a thermal radiation module for optically thin media were incorporated with the fluid dynamics code. In this study, kerosene-fueled rocket was assumed operating at O/F ratio of 2.34 with a nozzle expansion ratio of 6.14. Flight conditions considered were Mach number zero at ground level, Mach number 1.16 at altitude 5.06km and Mach number 2.9 at altitude 17.34km. Numerical results gave the understandings on the detailed plume structures at different altitude conditions. The diffusive effect of the thermal radiation on temperature field and the effect of chemical recombination during the expansion process could be also understood. By comparing the results from frozen flow and infinitely fast chemistry assumptions, the excess temperature of the exhaust gas resulting from the chemical recombination seems to be significant and cannot be neglected in the view point of performance, thermal protection and flow physics.