Detailed and Reduced Chemical Kinetic Model Development for Rocket Hydrocarbon Combustion

The objective of this project is to improve the state-of-the-art detailed chemical kinetic models for rocket fuels using relevant experimental data at liquid rocket engine (LRE) conditions. This improved kinetic model will be used to develop reduced kinetic models that can be used for computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulations of LRE for design purpose. To achieve these goals, Combustion Science & Engineering, Inc. (CSE) will collaborate with Stanford University to evaluate the performance of the existing models and identify the reactions or reaction subsets that need to be improved to reduce the uncertainty of the model predictions at LRE relevant conditions. Preliminary experiments will be conducted in Phase I to acquire reaction rate data in order to improve the model performance. Moreover, CSE will develop methodologies to develop reduced kinetic models for CFD simulations of LRE systems. The reduced kinetic models will be evaluated for computational efficiency and accuracy by simulating canonical test problems using standalone linear eddy model.