Combustion Modeling in Solid Rocket Motor Plumes

Abstract

Plumes emanating from solid rocket motors (SRM) exhibit flow statistics strongly influenced by complex hydrogen/oxygen/chlorine chemistry. These after burning reactions within the plume have a significant impact onto the thermal signature, as well as on the chemical erosion of any active or passive mechanical steering system exposed to the reactive motor plume. Within this study we provide an overview on the available combustion mechanism and evaluate their applicability to SRM plumes. For a preliminary evaluation the performance of the investigated mechanisms in a reactor and a SRM representative 1D counter-flowing flame are considered. Subsequently, some of the selected mechanisms are applied in Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes CFD calculations of a small scale SRM plume test case. The results offer a relevant evaluation of the performance of current SRM finite rate chemistry models and their impact on flowfield characteristics and are helpful for future scale-resolved simulations of multispecies, reactive solid-rocket motor plumes.