Numerical and experimental analysis of flashing cryogenic nitrogen

Abstract

The development of new upper orbit thrusters using cryogenic propellants requires an improved understanding of the dynamics of oxidizer and fuel injection at near vacuum conditions before ignition. Due to the low ambient pressure, the propellants enter a superheated state and flash evaporation occurs. Flash boiling of cryogenic liquid nitrogen is studied experimentally on the newly developed test bench at DLR Lampoldshausen and numerically with a newly developed OpenFOAM© solver. Here, a one-fluid approach is selected where phase properties, such as density, enthalpy and saturation conditions are determined with the thermodynamic library CoolProp and tabulated before runtime. The phase change is modeled by the homogeneous relaxation model. For highly superheated jets the flow becomes supersonic and forms a shock after the injector outlet. The solver is validated with the aid of flashing acetone spray experiments where the shock structures are more clearly visible. The results show that the developed solver is capable to predict the all important gas dynamics by matching shock structure and spray angle to the experiment. The experiments using cryogenic liquid, however, do not reveal any shock structures but regions with low negative axial velocities can be identified on the jet centerline. A comparison with the simulations now demonstrates that shocks continue to persist but the respective shadowgraph signals may be obscured in these flows. The joint experimental and numerical study thus provides a consistent understanding of the observed flow features that govern the fluid dynamics and jet breakup of cryogenic flashing flows.