Flow field and heat transfer analysis of oxygen/methane liquid rocket engine thrust chambers

This study is devoted to the characterization and analysis of the flow field and heat transfer in oxygen/methane liquid rocket engines. Attention is focused on the hot gas side of the thrust chamber, where highly energetic flows have to be managed en- suring the safe operation of the thrust chamber and of the entire engine. Different technological solutions to handle such flows are here investigated by means of CFD numerical simulations. As a compromise between details and computational cost, the attention is focused on capturing the basic phenomena involved which drive the main heat transfer processes, to allow full scale engine analysis as support to the engine design phase. The simplified approaches are defined, verified and validated against experimental data in different rocket engine conditions, such as film cooled and regeneratively cooled thrust chambers, and expander cycle engine thrust chambers with heat transfer enhancement devices. Hence, parametric analyses are finally carried out for each configuration. Finally, the simplified approaches are adopted in the thermal analysis of the LM-10 MIRA oxygen/methane expander cycle engine thrust chamber.