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The technique for Simulation of Transient Combustion Processes in the Rocket Engine

Operating with Gaseous Fuel “Hydrogen and Oxygen”

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2017 J. Phys.: Conf. Ser. 803 012187

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IOP Conf. Series: Journal of Physics: Conf. Series 803 (2017) 012187 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/803/1/012187

International Conference on Recent Trends in Physics 2016 (ICRTP2016) IOP Publishing

Journal of Physics: Conference Series 755 (2016) 011001 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/755/1/011001

The technique for Simulation of Transient Combustion

Processes in the Rocket Engine Operating with Gaseous Fuel
“Hydrogen and Oxygen”

V.M. Zubanov, D.V. Stepanov, L.S. Shabliy

Samara National Research University, 34, Moskovskoe shosse, Samara, 443086,

Russia

E-mail: [email protected]

Abstract. The article describes the method for simulation of transient combustion processes in
the rocket engine. The engine operates on gaseous propellant: oxygen and hydrogen.
Combustion simulation was performed using the ANSYS CFX software. Three reaction
mechanisms for the stationary mode were considered and described in detail. Reactions
mechanisms have been taken from several sources and verified. The method for converting
ozone properties from the Shomate equation to the NASA-polynomial format was described in
detail. The way for obtaining quick CFD-results with intermediate combustion components
using an EDM model was found. Modeling difficulties with combustion model Finite Rate
Chemistry, associated with a large scatter of reference data were identified and described. The
way to generate the Flamelet library with CFX-RIF is described. Formulated adequate reaction
mechanisms verified at a steady state have also been tested for transient simulation. The
Flamelet combustion model was recognized as adequate for the transient mode. Integral
parameters variation relates to the values obtained during stationary simulation. A cyclic
irregularity of the temperature field, caused by precession of the vortex core, was detected in
the chamber with the proposed simulation technique. Investigations of unsteady processes of
rocket engines including the processes of ignition were proposed as the area for application of
the described simulation technique.

1. Introduction
The combustion process in a chemical rocket engine is usually regarded as a set of 4-5 steps [1, 2].
Processes of injection, gasification and combustion are preceding the mixing process depending on the
fuel kind (single- or double-component, gas or liquid and solid). These intrachamber processes depend
strongly on the type of fuel and engine design (i.e., the complete or partial evaporation of the
components in the gas generator); there are a number of specialized techniques for calculating these
processes in the open literature [3, 4, 5]; and a universal method is not claimed. But combustion in the
gas phase takes place in the chamber of any chemical rocket engine, therefore the universal method for
simulation of gas-phase combustion is always actual. However, the previously proposed method of
calculating the intracameral combustion [1, 6] allows simulating only steady burning, excluding
transient phenomena. However, in any rocket engines (especially in thrusters) nonstationary processes
are important: the majority of accidents occurs when the engine starts [7]; moreover, thrusters
typically operate in a pulse mode, and the chamber parameters are always unsteady.

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 International Conference on Information Technologies in Business and Industry 2016 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Journal of Physics: Conf. Series 803 (2017) 012187 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/803/1/012187

This paper describes the method for simulation of transient combustion processes. A thruster
operating using gaseous oxygen and hydrogen was taken as the object of investigation.

2. A steady-state test of combustion mechanisms

Gross-formula or a chemical reactions system can be used for modeling nonstationary processes, as in
the case with the stationary mode. The use of gross-formula and stationary combustion simulation is
enough for most cases. Advantages of this approach include the ability of quick obtaining of
qualitative results from the first approximation, and fewer demands to the grid model and a
configuration of the CFD-model. The disadvantages are excessive temperatures by the results of the
calculation and incorrect modeling of unsteady operation modes [8].
The ignition process is largely determined by the unstable rapidly degradable components;
therefore, using a detailed reaction system is preferred for simulation accuracy. Selecting a detailed
chemical combustion mechanism in a stationary simulation is an important step: the correctness of
such reactions systems (for the considered engine) must be checked intently.
Three detailed system reactions of hydrogen and oxygen were considered:
1) the reactions system from the handbook, edited by W. Gardiner [9], detailed in work [6];
2) the reactions system from article [10];
3) Flamelet-library received with the CFX RIF generator built-in ANSYS [8].
During the first step, the simulation was conducted with the first set of reactions using a
combustion model “Eddy Dissipation Model” (EDM), which does not take into account the rate of
chemical reactions that is conventionally acceptable simplification only for stationary processes.
Calculation stably converges and gives qualitatively correct results, but the temperature was often
overestimated (Figure 1), as it always happens when using combustion model EDM [8]. These results
have been used later for initialization of the next simulations.
It should be noted that the stability of the calculation with the complex multi-stage reaction system
caused by the feature, which consists in the reaction rate, is neglected, and calculated from the reaction
products in the EDM; parameter «B» of model EDM in ANSYS CFX has default value "-1".
Otherwise, combustion model EDM can only be used for the system consisting of only two reactions
(if option B is equal to "0.5" as the default in the ANSYS Fluent [11]).
As has been previously noted that the usage of combustion model EDM for unsteady calculations is
incorrect; therefore, at the next stage, it was replaced by combustion model Finite Rate Chemistry
(FRC) that takes into account the reaction rate according to the Arrhenius equation [8]. Unfortunately,
there was no results. One possible reason of volatility was the lack of pre-exponential factors of
accurate values of reaction rates in the source [9]: values taken from different sources often differ by
several orders of magnitude.
A more actual «oxygen-hydrogen» reaction system, consisting of 26 equations, was found in
work [10]; the equations describe the direct and inverse interaction of nine components (H, H2, O, O2,
O3, HO2, OH, H2O2, H2O), taking into account their relative catalytic effect. This system has been
adapted to the combustion process in the thruster by excluding catalytic reactions involving nitrogen
and argon.
The properties of all components, except ozone (O3), were taken from the «Gas Phase
Combustion» ANSYS CFX library, where heat capacity, enthalpy and entropy are given depending on
the temperature via NASA-polynomials:

(1)

2
 International Conference on Information Technologies in Business and Industry 2016 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Journal of Physics: Conf. Series 803 (2017) 012187 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/803/1/012187

(2)

(3)
where Cp – specific heat capacity [J/(kg·K)], H – enthalpy [J/kg], S - entropy [J/(kg·K)], R - gas
constant of the current gas [J/(kg·K)], T - static temperature [K], a1…a7 – NASA-polynomial
coefficients.
Ozone properties were taken from the open online database of the National Institute of Standards
and Technology (USA) [12, 13], where they are given by the A ... G coefficients of the Shomate
equation:

(4)

(5)

(6)
where M = 47,9982·10-3 kg/mol – the molar mass of ozone, t = T / 1000 – the temperature in
thousands of Kelvin degrees.
As can be seen from equations (1) ... (6), the explicit algebraic conversion coefficients of the
Shomate equation into NASA-format for a subsequent use in ANSYS CFX is impossible. Therefore, it
was evaluated in the following manner: 5 coefficients of NASA-polynomial Cp a1…a5 were obtained
by solving a system of five equations closed on the basis of data of the ozone characteristics obtained
by the Shomate equation (Table 1 and 2). Coefficients a6 and a7 were obtained by solving equations (2)
and (3), correspondingly. The performed verification showed that the obtained NASA- polynomial
give the ozone properties values that are different from the original data (Shomate equation) by not
more than 0.2% in the whole range of values (Figure 2).

Table 1. Initial coefficients of Shomate equation for ozone properties

Temperature range
Tmin. K Tmax. K A B C D E F G
300 1200 21.66157 79.86001 -66.02603 19.58363 -0.079251 132.9407 243.6406
1200 6000 57.81409 0.730941 -0.039253 0.00261 -3.560367 115.7717 294.5607

Table 2. Calculated coefficients of NASA-polynomials for ozone properties

Temperature range
Tmin. K Tmax. K a 1. - a2. K-1 a3. K-2 a4. K-3 a5. K-4 a 6. K a 7. -
300 1200 372.96 1.999565 -1.949401·10-3 8.498051·10-7 -1.2676·10-10 -167190 -2612.66
1200 6000 1021.5 0.186437 -6.350789·10-5 1.025164·10-8 -6.1116·10-13 -1305734 672041.1

3
 International Conference on Information Technologies in Business and Industry 2016 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Journal of Physics: Conf. Series 803 (2017) 012187 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/803/1/012187

Figure 1. Static temperature obtained Figure 2. Visualization of approximation of points, given by

using combustion model EDM with the Shomate equation by NASA-polynomials by the example
the first reactions set. of specific heat capacity.

During this work, the authors were unable to achieve stable "combustion" in the LPRE chamber
using the FRC model. The reason probably lies in the parameters of the individual rates of chemical
reactions which were obtained for the other conditions; the reaction rate was used from the synthesis
of gas and air at low pressures, not only hydrogen in oxygen at high pressures.
At the third stage of combustion, simulation mechanisms in the flame front (Flamelet-model) were
investigated. Combustion reactions data were obtained with the CFX RIF flamelet libraries generator
built-in ANSYS CFX.
Figure 3 shows a static temperature distribution along the rocket engine chamber using reactions of
the Flamelet-library. Comparison of the results with the first system (Figure 1) showed that using
flamelet combustion model eliminates overestimation of the maximum temperature in the chamber:
3500 K with flamelet vs 5000 K with EDM. Also, combustion with flamelet occurs at the fuel-oxidant
front and not so fast, evidenced by the presence of the unreacted fuel components in the critical
section; it gives more physical distribution of all parameters.

Figure 3. Static temperature distribution along the

thruster chamber using the third combustion
mechanism.

3. Methods for transient simulation of combustion

Simulation of combustion in the rocket engine was conducted in two variants of calculation:
calculation with the second reactions system using the FRC combustion model and calculation with
the Flamelet model.

4
 International Conference on Information Technologies in Business and Industry 2016 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Journal of Physics: Conf. Series 803 (2017) 012187 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/803/1/012187

Usage of the FRC model with transient statement confirmed that it is incorrect to use FRC system
reactions: combustion was «non-self-sustaining », which led to the flame attenuation within the first
simulation steps (Figure 4).
In case of the non-stationary Flamelet model, the simulation of the combustion proceeds steadily
and parameters are slightly changed with respect to the values obtained at the stationary modeling.
This reaction mechanism gives a qualitative and adequate picture of the combustion in unsteady
simulations: the flame front oscillates a little bit about their average stationary position.
A periodically rotating circle of flame unevenness was unexpectedly found in the cylindrical
section of the subcritical tapered nozzle on the conical section of the LPRE chamber during analysis of
obtained data when testing the non-stationary methods. It is similar to a vortex core precession
(Figure 5).

t = 0,01 мкс t = 0,4 мс t = 0,6 мс

t = 0,08 мкс t = 0,8 мс t = 1,0 мс

Figure 4. Static temperature distribution Figure 5. Static temperature distribution in the
along the LPRE chamber using a set of cylindrical section of the LPRE chamber.
reactions for two timestamps: 0.01 µs and
0.08 µs.

4. Conclusion
Several modeling methods of the hydrogen-oxygen transient combustion in the chamber thruster were
investigated using detailed chemical kinetics and the mechanisms of the different combustion models
in ANSYS CFX were analyzed. From the considered combustion mechanisms only the Flamelet
combustion model allowed obtaining the qualitatively adequate results. Using the FRC combustion
model is unreasonably difficult due to the large variation of rate constants input data of the Arrhenius
equation for a set of elementary chemical reactions. The EDM combustion model can be used for
quick obtainment of reference solutions for initialization, despite the overestimated temperatures. The
Flamelet combustion model was recognized as a qualitatively adequate model; it can be used in the
future to study instabilities of combustion processes and transient processes, including ignition.
However, it should be subjected to a detailed verification for this purpose [14].

5. Acknowledgments
This work was supported by the Ministry of Education and Science of the Russian Federation in the
framework of the implementation of the Program ‘‘Research and development on priority directions of
the scientific-technological complex of Russia for 2014– 2020”.

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International Conference on Information Technologies in Business and Industry 2016 IOP Publishing
IOP Conf. Series: Journal of Physics: Conf. Series 803 (2017) 012187 doi:10.1088/1742-6596/803/1/012187

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