One of the obstacles in developing annular aerospike nozzles involves effectively managing thermal loads caused by the wide surface area exposed to high heat flux. A modular design is usually proposed as a solution, at the cost of performance reduction. In this framework, the present work focuses on the critical analysis of the design of a regenerative cooling system for a modular aerospike upper-stage LOX/CH4 liquid rocket engine, with a counter-flow cooling circuit fed by methane. Simplified heat transfer models are used to examine channel geometries, and the chosen design is validated through a conjugate heat transfer simulation. Results show that for the present nozzle size a good compromise between thermal management and pressure drop can be obtained, provided that the cooling channels design is suitably realized.
Cooling system analysis of a clustered module aerospike for upper-stage applications / Sereno, Alessio; Fiore, Matteo; Bianchi, Daniele; Nasuti, Francesco. - (2023). (Intervento presentato al convegno Aerospace Europe Conference 2023 – 10ᵀᴴ EUCASS – 9ᵀᴴ CEAS tenutosi a Lausanne).
Cooling system analysis of a clustered module aerospike for upper-stage applications
Alessio Sereno
;Matteo Fiore;Daniele Bianchi;Francesco Nasuti
2023
Abstract
One of the obstacles in developing annular aerospike nozzles involves effectively managing thermal loads caused by the wide surface area exposed to high heat flux. A modular design is usually proposed as a solution, at the cost of performance reduction. In this framework, the present work focuses on the critical analysis of the design of a regenerative cooling system for a modular aerospike upper-stage LOX/CH4 liquid rocket engine, with a counter-flow cooling circuit fed by methane. Simplified heat transfer models are used to examine channel geometries, and the chosen design is validated through a conjugate heat transfer simulation. Results show that for the present nozzle size a good compromise between thermal management and pressure drop can be obtained, provided that the cooling channels design is suitably realized.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.