Numerical simulation of multi-phase combustion flow in solid rocket motors with metalized propellant

Multi-phase flowfield simulation has been performed on solid rocket motor and effect of multi-phases on the performance prediction of the solid rocket motor(SRM) is investigation.During the combustion of aluminized propellant,the aluminum particles in the propellant melt and formliquid aluminum at the burning propellant surface.So the flow within the rocket motor is multi phase or two phase because it contains droplets and smoke particles of Al2O3.Flowsi mulations have been performed on a large scale motor,to observe the effect of the flowfield onthe chamber and nozzle as well.Uniform particles diameters and Rosin-Rammler diameter distribution method that is based on the assumption that an exponential relationship exists betweenthe droplet diameter,dand mass fraction of droplets with diameter greater thandhave been used for the si mulation of different distribution of Al2O3 droplets present in SRM.Particles sizes in the range of 1-100μm are used,as being the most common droplets.In this approachthe complete range of particle sizes is dividedinto a set of discrete size ranges,eachto be defined by single streamthat is part of the group.Roe scheme-flux differencing splitting based on approxi mate Riemann problem has been used to si mulate the effects of the multi-phase flowfeild.This is second order upwind scheme in which flux differencing splitting method is employed.To cater for the turbulence effect,Spalart-All maras model has been used.The results obtained show the great sensitivity of this diameters distribution and particles concentrations to the SRMflowdynamics,primarily at the motor chamber and nozzle exit.The results are shown with various sizes of the particles concentrations and geometrical configurations including models for SRM and nozzle.The analysis also provides effect of multi-phase on performance prediction of solid rocket motor.     

Multi-phase flow effect on SRM nozzle flow field and thermal protection materials

Multi-phase flow effect generated from the combustion of aluminum based composite propellant was performed on the thermal protection material of solid rocket motor(SRM) nozzle.Injection of alumina(Al₂O₃) particles from 5% to 10% was tried on SRM nozzle flow field to see the influence of multiphase flow on heat transfer computations.A coupled,time resolved CFD(computational fluid dynamics) approach was adopted to solve the conjugate problem of multi-phase fluid flow and heat transfer in the solid rocket motor nozzle.The governing equations are discretized by using the finite volume method.Spalart-Allmaras(S-A) turbulence model was employed.The computation was executed on the different models selected for the analysis to validate the temperature variation in the throat inserts and baking material of SRM nozzle.Comparison for temperatures variations were also carried out at different expansion ratios of nozzle.This paper also characterized the advanced SRM nozzle composites material for their high thermo stability and their high thermo mechanical capabilities to make it more reliable simpler and lighter.