Supercritical reactive flow modeling in LRE thrust chambers

This CFD study is devoted to the characterization and the analysis of the flow field and heat loads evaluation in oxygen/methane liquid rocket engines. Thanks to CFD we obtain a compromise between details and experimental cost and it is possible a full scale engine analysis as support to the engine design phase. Our work is focused on the heat flux evaluation, hot gas and on flame structure in a thrust chamber. The importance of flame position leads to a study of mesh refinement of post tip. As consequence, a small recirculation zone near the post tip is identified and is studied to guarantee a stable flame also in term of position in the chamber. Also three large recirculation zones of hot gases are located in the combustion chamber and their presence assures, near the walls and the plate, the presence of high heat fluxes. We considered the usage of EOSs and a preliminary analysis was realised before the CFD simulations. Simple test cases are simulated and used to identify the best numerical strategy employ. Finally, we reproduced a simulation of the DEMO a regenerative cooled chamber LOX/methane, obtaining by combustion process simulation the heat flux at the chamber and nozzle walls.