Numerical simulation of a sub-scale rocket combustor, carried out in the framework of CNES-DLR cooperation

In recent years, LOX/CH4 propellant combination has attracted a lot of attention due to various advantages compared to typical LOX/H2 and LOX/RP-1 rocket engines. The topic of the present work is to find a fast and reliable method to simulate turbulent and supercritical LOX/CH4 combustion in a sub-scale combustion chamber using Ansys Fluent. An extended EDM model with as single-step reaction is applied. The turbulence is modelled using a RANS approach and the SST k-w model is used for the turbulence closure. In order to account for real gas effects Soave-Redlich-Kwong (SRK) real gas equation of state is employed. Moreover, the liquid rocket engine operates at high pressures which are very close to the critical pressure of the propellants, where the thermodynamic properties deviate considerably from ideal behaviour. In order to simulate the behaviour of the propellants properly, an analytical study on the thermodynamic and transport properties at inlet condition is conducted.