Soot Nucleation/Growth Dynamics and Performance/Environmental Impact

The objective of this project is to implement and demonstrate a comprehensive physical model and practical computation tool for predicting/analyzing soot formation due to hydrocarbon-fuel combustion is liquid-propellant rockets. A state-of-science approach is proposed for understanding/ quantifying soot formation mechanisms/rates and for investigating/ designing methods to minimize the mass/number of soot particles and to mitigate the associated adverse effects on engine efficiency, hard lifetime, plume visibility, and environmental quality. The research will exploit/extend/combine recent experimental findings and theoretical advancements in multiple related technical disciplines: internal/external viscous gas dynamics, coupled multiphase nonequilibrium chemistry, propellant droplet vaporization/diffusion/combustion, soot particle nucleation/growth kinetics, and soot-surface chemistry/affinity. The Phase I effort will produce/demonstrate a prototype computer code as a basis for extension/validation/experimentation under Phase II