Design of an innovative cooled firing plate for M10 rocket engine with CFD verification

The management of heat flows in liquid propellant endo-reactors has always been a problem that requires an in-depth study of the physical problem and the application of advanced refrigeration techniques. The high temperature of the gases in the combustion chamber causes a flow of heat through the wall that does not allow the survival of the components if not adequately refrigerated. One of the most delicate and at the same time stressed components is the injection plate which must be correctly refrigerated to maintain the injection performance at all times. The engine studied in this work is the innovative AVIO M10. It is a very advanced methane-oxygen rocket engine destined to equip the new Vega E launcher, bringing the number of stages to three compared to the four of the previous model. The aim of this paper is to research an innovative and more efficient cooling system for heat removal from the firing plate of the M10 rocket engine. The study was carried out using a 1D calculation code developed in Wolfram Mathematica language, subsequently verified by Computational Fluid Dynamics using the open-source software OpenFOAM. This study is based on a series of calculation codes already present in AVIO and was driven by the need to increase the performance and efficiency of the M10. The project involves the replacement of the current cooling system of the firing plate, consisting of a cooling gap, with a system of internal ducts obtained by 3D printing using the ALM technique. The document begins with an introduction and description of the rockets, and in particular of the M10, followed by a discussion of the problem and an approach to the various physical phenomena through a description of the models used. Afterward, the calculation code and the approach used to set up the CFD test cases are described and treated. Finally, the results obtained are discussed and compared with each other and the conclusions of the study are drawn, highlighting possible future developments.