Computation of heat transfer in exothermically reacting rheological hypergolic gel fuels for rocket propulsion systems

Beg, OA; Beg, TA; Kadir, A; Leonard, HJ; Zubair, A; Jouri, WS; Gorla, RSR

Abstract

In recent years spacecraft engineers have been actively developing novel rocket fuels for improved
combustion performance and longer duration burn times. Numerous studies have shown the potential
benefits of gelled fuels and oxidizers. The NASA Lewis Research Center and its partners have
investigated O2 /H2 /Al and O2 /RP-1 /Al for NASA missions and conducted experimental programs to
validate elements of the combustion and fuel technology. Gelled and metallized gelled hydrogen and
RP-1 have been emphasized since hydrogen and RP-1 are typical propellants for NASA launch vehicles
and upper stages. Hypergolic gelled fuels such as Monomethyl-hydrazine (MMH) and red fuming nitric
acid (RFNA) feature strong rheological characteristics which are essential for their optimized function.
Motivated by more accurately characterizing the non-Newtonian heat transfer in such hybrid gel fuels,
in the present work, a pseudo-spectral numerical method is employed to study the steady, laminar,
incompressible flow and heat transfer in a cylindrical conduit containing viscoelastic hypergolic gel
fuel. Convective cooling is included. The exothermic reaction is modeled using Arrhenius kinetics and a
third grade non-Newtonian Rivlin-Ericksen (“differential” fluid) model is employed to simulate
viscoelastic effects. The dimensionless momentum and energy conservation equations are solved
under appropriate boundary conditions. The effects of viscoelastic parameter (), activation energy
parameter (), Frank-Kamenestskii parameter (), Biot number (Bi), viscous heating parameter (m) on
velocity and temperature evolution in the regime are studied in detail. Excellent correlation between
the present pseudo-spectral simulations and Hermite-Padé solutions from the literature is obtained.
Further validation is included using Maple quadrature and a MATLAB-based variational iteration
method (VIM). The study has important applications in hybrid aerospace propulsion systems utilizing
hypergolic reactive gels, and further confirms the excellent stability and adaptability of pseudospectral and variational iteration techniques in simulating such flows.

Citation

Beg, O., Beg, T., Kadir, A., Leonard, H., Zubair, A., Jouri, W., & Gorla, R. (2022, March). Computation of heat transfer in exothermically reacting rheological hypergolic gel fuels for rocket propulsion systems. Presented at ICAMET 2022 : 16th International Conference on Aero-mechanical Engineering & Technology, Dubai, United Arab Emirates

• Presentation Conference Type: Other
• Conference Name: ICAMET 2022 : 16th International Conference on Aero-mechanical Engineering & Technology
• Conference Location: Dubai, United Arab Emirates
• Start Date: Mar 21, 2022
• End Date: Mar 22, 2022
• Acceptance Date: Apr 12, 2020
• Deposit Date: Apr 18, 2020
• Publisher URL: https://waset.org/aero-mechanical-engineering-and-technology-conference-in-march-2022-in-dubai
• Additional Information: Event Type : Conference