Research Projects

Film cooling is an active cooling strategy for thermal management of thrust chambers of rocket engines. The technique involves continuous injection of a thin layer of fluid near a wall to provide thermal protection from a hot-gas flow. The rate of heat transfer from hot gases to the walls is the highest near nozzle throat region and this calls from additional injection of coolant fluid near the throat. This is focused on liquid film cooling as applied to the thrust chamber of a semi cryogenic engine with particular attention to the requirement at nozzle throat. The study will concentrate on a detailed numerical model of film cooling of thrust chamber of the semi-cryogenic engine with emphasis on the development of the momentum and thermal boundary layers, mixing of the coolant with the mainstream and most importantly the impact of combustion reactions. Since the injected coolant takes part in reactions, the concomitant depletion of the layer needs to be studied in detail in order to design the coolant injection system for the nozzle.