Coupled Pyrolysis, Radiant Heat Transfer, and Fluid Dynamics Modeling

The proposed Phase I effort involves the formulation of an advanced model for accurately simulating the post burn out effects in solid rocket motors. This all encompassing model will account for known physical phenomena such as pyrolysis, heat conduction, fluid dynamics, and radiative transport within the motor chamber. Several high fidelity models currently exist to model these physical processes and innovative approaches will be developed to successfully couple these models into an existing state of the art CFD code. In Phase I we will focus on coupling the fluid dynamics with a radiative heat transfer model that accounts for the effects of the gas and particles demonstrating the effects for a simple unit problem. The plan developed in Phase I will be systematically implemented in Phase II and will include motor specific submodels for the pyrolysis and heat transfer. The end result will be an all encompassing end-to-end model that can be utilized to accurately predict post burn out phenomena in solid rocket motors. It is envisioned that the resulting upgraded CFD model will also be invaluable in modeling the solid rocket motor, nozzle, and exhaust plume flowfield from ignition to burn out as well.