Problem Definition: The atmospheric impact of rocket engines is linked to the evolution of the molecules and particles in the wake of the launcher. The wake is controlled by the flow in the nozzle and in particular the jet flow separation, which induces significant side-loads to the structure and had significant impacts on the design of rocket engine nozzles. Thus, up to now, numerical studies have considered an inert mixture, sometimes with adjusted thermodynamic properties. The present project aims to directly include the physico-chemical processes in the wake flow along with separation and shock, in challenging Large Eddy Simulations. In addition, possible interaction with the wakes of boosters will be also investigat-ed, as the water vapor released by Liquid Rocket Engines (LREs) may condensate at high altitude on the alumina particles released by the solid combustion, forming so-called contrails.
Large Eddy Simulation (LES) code AVBP developed at CERFACS will be used to:
- Study the evolution of the emissions in the near field of the wake of a rocket engine fueled with various blends
- Investigate how the reacting mixture impacts the nozzle and wake flows
- Determine how the reacting mixture evolve in the near-wake and in the interaction with the jets from the boosters
Chemical reduction of the reacting mixture will be done using Cantera and Arcane Software.
- Nozzle flow simulations with reacting mixture taking into account the thermochemistry in the nozzle simulations using semi-detailed kinetics (ARC)
- Study of the contrails resulting from the Aerosols (soot particles) in the near wake from a Liquid Rocket Engines (LREs) in interaction with the booster jets (alumina nano-particles)
- Impact of the configuration to the near-flow on the final emissions considering various arrangements of full configurations of LREs and boosters
- Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB, Brussels, Belgium, ca. 3 months): implementation of reduced chemistry schemes
- Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt e.V. (DLR, Hardthausen, Germany, ca. 2 months): analysis experimental data for numerical setup and validation
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