A COMPUTER MODEL FOR LIQUID JET ATOMIZATION IN ROCKET THRUSTCHAMBERS.

LIQUID PROPELLANT ATOMIZATION PLAYS A DOMINANT ROLE IN STABLE AND EFFICIENT OPERATION OF ROCKET THRUST CHAMBERS. DESPITE THE RECENT PROGRESS IN COMPUTATIONAL FLUID DYNAMICS (CFD) AND SPRAY COMBUSTION MODELLING TECHNIQUES, NOSATISFACTORY APPROACH HAS YET BEEN DEVELOPED FOR PROPELLANT ATOMIZATION MODELLING. THE MAJOR INNOVATIVE ELEMENT OF THIS PROPOSAL IS TO PREDICT THE DROPLET BREAKUP RATE AND AVERAGE DROPLET DIAMETER AFTER PRIMARY ATOMIZATION. THE APPROACH IS TO PREDICT THE WAVE FORMATION ON THE JET SURFACE AND ITS TRANSPORT. THESE MODELS WILL BE COUPLED WITH THE JET EMBEDDING (JE) TECHNIQUE OF PREDICTING THE ATOMIZATION PROCESS. THE PROPOSED IMPROVEMENTS WILL BE INCORPORATED INTO NASA'S MULTI-DIMENSIONAL REACTIVE FLOW CODE, REFLAN, AND TESTED ON THE SSME THRUST CHAMBER GEOMETRY. THE PHASE I WORK WILL ESTABLISH THE FEASIBILITY OF THE PROPOSED MODIFICATIONS. IN PHASE II, EMPHASIS WILL BE ON CODE VERIFICATION, AND ON EXTENSIONS, E.G. FOR NON-AXISYMMETRI JETS AND IMPINGING ELEMENTS.