Propulsion Modeling

The occurrence of combustion instability has long been a matter of serious concern in the development of liquid-propellant rocket engines due to the high rate of energy release in a confined volume in which energy losses are relatively small. Positive feedback between the acoustic waves and unsteady combustion could lead to the destruction of an engine in a fraction of a second. The situation is especially serious for engines of MDA’s concern in which the energy density is exceedingly high. The proposed work will employ physics-based simulations of the interaction between unsteady flow oscillations, acoustic waves, and combustion response in liquid-propellant rocket engines to identify and quantify underlying physiochemical mechanisms for driving combustion and flow oscillations. The effect of various design attributes will be investigated systemically.