Large-Eddy Simulations of a sub-scale liquid rocket combustor: influence of fuel injection temperature on thermo-acoustic stability

Thomas Schmitt (1) , Gabriel Staffelbach (2) , Sébastien Ducruix (1) , Stefan Gröning (3) , Justin Hardi (3) , Michael Oschwald (4)

1 EM2C - Laboratoire d'Énergétique Moléculaire et Macroscopique, Combustion
2 CERFACS - Centre Européen de Recherche et de Formation Avancée en Calcul Scientifique
3 DLR - Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt [Lampoldshausen]
4 DLR Institute of Space Propulsion / Institut für Raumfahrtantriebe

The present work aims at the prediction of high frequency combustion instabilities in cryogenic rocket engines using Large Eddy Simulation (LES). The sub-scale rocket combustor BKD from DLR has 42 coaxial injectors fed with liquid oxygen and gaseous hydrogen operating at conditions representative of full-scale engines. The combustor is found to be stable for low hydrogen injection temperatures and unstable for higher ones. The LES solver is first validated on the Mascotte test-bench from ONERA. Two BKD cases are then simulated, corresponding to naturally stable and unstable regimes in the experiment. The recent progresses and results are described and analyzed.

Domaines: Milieux fluides et réactifs

Thomas Schmitt, Gabriel Staffelbach, Sébastien Ducruix, Stefan Gröning, Justin Hardi, et al.. Large-Eddy Simulations of a sub-scale liquid rocket combustor: influence of fuel injection temperature on thermo-acoustic stability. 7TH EUROPEAN CONFERENCE FOR AERONAUTICS AND AEROSPACE SCIENCES (EUCASS), Jul 2017, Milan, Italy. ⟨10.13009/EUCASS2017-352⟩. ⟨hal-01649500⟩