Modeling of Homogeneous Condensation in High Density Thruster Plumes

Abstract

A computational approach to homogeneous nucleation is proposed, based on Eulerian description of the gas phase coupled with a Lagrangian approach to the cluster phase. A continuum, Euler / Navier-Stokes solver VAC is used to model the gas transport, and a kinetic particle solver is developed in this work to simulate cluster nucleation and growth. The new model was found to reproduce well the known theoretical dimer formation equilibrium constants for two gases under consideration, argon and water. Reasonable agreement between computed and available experimental data was found in terminal cluster size distributions in nozzle water expansions in a wide range of stagnation pressures. The proposed approach was found to be orders of magnitude faster than a comparable approach based on the DSMC method.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 04, 2010
Accession Number
ADA522806

Entities

People

  • Ingrid Wysong
  • Natalia Gimelshein
  • Ryan Jansen
  • Sergey F. Gimelshein

Organizations

  • Air Force Research Laboratory

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force Research Laboratories
  • Chemical Reactions
  • Computational Fluid Dynamics
  • Computational Science
  • Energy
  • Energy Transfer
  • Equations Of Motion
  • Experimental Data
  • Fluid Mechanics
  • Gas Flow
  • Heat Energy
  • Heat Transfer
  • Mathematical Models
  • Molecular Dynamics
  • Monte Carlo Method
  • Navier Stokes Equations
  • Stagnation Pressure

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Combustion and Flow Dynamics.
  • Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)
  • Quantum Chemistry

Technology Areas

  • Space
  • Space - Hall-Effect Thruster