Simulation of a single-element GCH4/GOx rocket combustor using a non-adiabatic flamelet method

In this contribution we present numerical simulations of a single element gaseous-methane/gaseous-oxygen (GCH4/GOX) rocket combustor. The aim is to describe and validate a numerical framework for the simulation of mixing, combustion and wall heat transfer in liquid rocket engines (LRE). Such framework is based on a low-Mach number, unsteady Reynolds averaged Navier Stokes (URANS) approach where turbulent combustion modeling is tackled by means of a non-adiabatic flamelet-based method. The latter allows a detailed chemical description of the non-premixed flame structure by employing reasonable computational resources. Two-dimensional as well as three-dimensional results show similar trends in terms of temperature, velocity and composition fields. In addition, an overall good agreement with available experimental results is observed for both the simulations, in terms of pressure and wall heat transfer along the chamber wall. Moreover, the effects of the injector recess and oxidizer to fuel ratio are preliminarily investigated using two-dimensional axis-symmetric simulations.