Numerical Simulation of the Spray Characteristics in Small Scale Liquid Rocket Engine Combustion Chamber

Abstract

The mathematical and physical model of the liquid propellant spray in straight nozzle was proposed for studying the performance characteristics of the small-scale liquid rocket engine. With the Fluent software, the numerical simulation was carried out. Sauter mean diameter (SMD) of the HAN-based liquid propellant (LP1846) in the engine combustor changing with spray pressure, nozzle diameter and the liquid surface tension were analyzed. The results indicate that: in the spray pressure region of 1.8MPa~3.0MPa, at a fixed spray pressure, the smaller is the nozzle diameter, the smaller is the droplets’ SMD and the relationship between the SMD and the nozzle diameter is approximately linearity; for the same nozzle diameter and spray pressure, the larger is the surface tension, the larger is the liquid droplets’ SMD.