Preliminary Study of Heat Transfer Correlation Development and Pressure Loss Behavior in Curved High Aspect Ratio Coolant Channels

Abstract

Convective heat transfer is important for maintaining life and reliability of the main combustion chamber in liquid rocket engines. Enhancing the regenerative cooling circuit's ability to maintain wall temperature with minimal pressure losses improves engine life and has the potential to reduce the turbopump output pressure. High aspect ratio coolant channels have been shown to reduce wall temperature with little pressure increase. Additionally, rocket engine cooling circuits are curved and the mechanisms responsible for curvature enhancement remain unclear for tall, narrow passages and appropriate predictive tools have not been developed. The objective of this research is to study the mechanisms responsible for improved cooling performance and to develop heat transfer correlations for use in high aspect ratio coolant channels having conducting side walls and subjected to asymmetric heating on the concave side, thus modeling a channel in a slotted liner.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Dec 01, 2008
Accession Number
ADA502479

Entities

People

  • Anh-tuan Le
  • J. C. Sturgis
  • Jennifer C. Nathman
  • Jung Yi
  • Justin E. Niehaus

Organizations

  • Air Force Research Laboratory

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force Research Laboratories
  • Aspect Ratio
  • Boundary Layer
  • Chambers
  • Combustion
  • Combustion Chambers
  • Computational Fluid Dynamics
  • Cooling
  • Correlation Analysis
  • Curvature
  • Engines
  • Geometry
  • Heat Transfer
  • Pressure Distribution
  • Pressure Gradients
  • Rocket Engines
  • Temperature Gradients

Fields of Study

  • Engineering

Readers

  • Fluid Mechanics and Fluid Dynamics.
  • Rocket Propulsion.
  • Thermal Physics or Thermal Science.