In this paper, using methane/oxygen as the engine propellant, the single nozzle structure and the coaxial shear injection unit were used to analyse the influence of propellant flow change on the combustion chamber flow field and the influence of different factors on combustion efficiency. The results show that as the pressure of the combustion chamber increases, the concentration of the components increases, the combustion reaction speed is accelerated, and the maximum temperature of the combustion chamber increases, but the radial length of the high temperature area decreases; The pressure of the combustion chamber is proportional to the flow rate of the propellant, the flow of the propellant is reduced, the pressure of the combustion chamber is reduced as a whole, and the transportation speed of the material components in the combustion chamber is increased, which in turn reduces the maximum temperature of the combustion chamber, and ultimately leads to a decrease in combustion efficiency; In the process of continuous change of propellant flow, fuel flow, combustion chamber pressure, combustion chamber temperature and combustion chamber material composition jointly affect the combustion efficiency, but the influence of fuel flow on combustion efficiency dominates.
Although the low-thrust liquid oxygen/methane rocket engine has broad application prospects, the low flame propagation speed and low combustion rate of methane fuel make the liquid oxygen/methane engine still face key technical challenges. Methane fuel is partially converted into hydrogen and ethane with higher combustion rate before being injected into the combustion chamber, which is positive for the use of dielectric barrier to improve the combustion performance of the engine. Therefore, this paper studies the effect of the main four products of dielectric barrier discharge reforming with methane conversion rate of 10%, on the flow field of the combustion chamber. The results show that the addition of reforming products can effectively improve the combustion efficiency of the engine. H2 in the reforming product can also improve the specific impulse performance of the engine by increasing the total pressure of the engine chamber. C2H4 will not affect the maximum temperature of the engine, However, it can expand the medium-high temperature range of engine temperature to different degrees. The addition of H2 accelerates the oxygen consumption rate, which provides a feasible way to reduce the design size of the engine and improve the combustion efficiency of the low-thrust engine.
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