Thermal-structural analysis of regenerativelycooled thrust chamber wall in reusable LOX/Methane rocket engines

To predict the thermal and structural responses of the thrust chamber wall under cyclic work,a 3-D fluid-structural coupling computational methodology is developed.The thermal and mechanical loads are determined by a validated 3-D finite volume fluid-thermal coupling computational method.With the specified loads,the nonlinear thermal-structural finite element analysis is applied to obtaining the 3-D thermal and structural responses.The Chaboche nonlinear kinematic hardening model calibrated by experimental data is adopted to predict the cyclic plastic behavior of the inner wall.The methodology is further applied to the thrust chamber of LOX/Methane rocket engines.The results show that both the maximum temperature at hot run phase and the maximum circumferential residual strain of the inner wall appear at the convergent part of the chamber.Struc tural analysis for multiple work cycles reveals that the failure of the inner wall may be controlled by the low-cycle fatigue when the Chaboche model parameter γ3 =0,and the damage caused by the thermal-mechanical ratcheting of the inner wall cannot be ignored when γ3 ＞ 0.The results of sen sitivity analysis indicate that mechanical loads have a strong influence on the strains in the inner wall.     

Stress-controlled LCF experiments and ratcheting behaviour simulation of a nickel-based single crystal superalloy with [001] orientation

Uniaxial ratcheting behaviour and low cycle fatigue (LCF) failure mechanism of nickel-based single crystal superalloy DD6 with [001] orientation are investigated through the stress-controlled LCF tests with stress ratio of −1. Then the deformation behaviour during the whole-lifetime from the beginning of the experiment to the fracture of the specimen, as well as the fractographic/metallographic morphology, are compared with the strain-controlled LCF experimental results. Through the scanning electron microscope (SEM) observations, it is shown that the failure characteristics under stress-controlled LCF loading are similar with those under strain-controlled loading. Nevertheless, unlike strain-controlled LCF loading, even under fully reversed cycle loading for stress-controlled LCF, DD6 shows significant ratcheting behaviour due to the tension-compression asymmetry. In addition, the LCF lifetimes under stress control are significantly shorter than the LCF lifetimes under strain control, and the culprit might be the detrimental effect of ratcheting strain on LCF lifetime. Based on these phenomena, an improved crystal plasticity constitutive model on the basis of slip-based Walker constitutive model is developed through modifying the kinematic hardening rule in order to overcome the inaccurate prediction of decelerating stage and stable stage of ratcheting behaviour. Furthermore, combining the continuum damage mechanics, a damage-coupled crystal plasticity constitutive model is proposed to reflect the damage behaviour of DD6 and the accelerating stage of ratcheting behaviour. The simulation results for the stress-controlled LCF deformation behaviour including the whole-lifetime ratcheting behaviour show good agreement with the experimental data.