Time- and Length Scales of Combustion in Liquid Rocket Thrust Chambers

Abstract

This paper summarizes experimental and computational results of research on propellant mixing and combustion in high-pressure LOX/GH2 rocket combustors. Hot-fire tests and numerical experiments are utilized to get more detailed information about the physics of mixing and combustion under high-pressure (transcritical) conditions. Time- and length scales of the reacting shear layer are identified by results from numerical simulation and experiments. The comparison between numerical and experimental results show the same tendencies of the distribution of length scales within the reactive shear layder. It was ascertained that the length scales are increasing downstream of the injector face plate. Qualitative and quantitative data about the flowfield (morphology, velocity, species distribution, etc.) at different boundary conditions are presented.