Open AccessThe role of non-equilibrium plasma kinetic effect on GCH4/GOX rocket engine combustion performance
Author(s) -
Qingya Chen,
Jiaying Ge,
Tikai Zheng,
Xueke Che,
Wei Nie
Publication year - 2020
Publication title -
journal of physics. conference series
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.21
H-Index - 85
eISSN - 1742-6596
pISSN - 1742-6588
DOI - 10.1088/1742-6596/1707/1/012015
Subject(s) - combustion , methane , specific impulse , rocket engine , dissociation (chemistry) , chemistry , combustion chamber , plasma , kinetic energy , materials science , thermodynamics , propellant , aerospace engineering , physics , organic chemistry , quantum mechanics , engineering
Non-equilibrium plasma has significant chemical kinetic effect and aerodynamic effect, both of which play an important role in the plasma-assisted combustion. In this paper, the numerical study on plasma-assisted combustion in gaseous methane rocket engine is carried out to investigate the impact of kinetic effect on its combustion performance. There are three schemes of plasma excitation via oxygen, methane and both of them in the numerical simulation model. The variations of combustion chamber temperature, pressure, species concentration and special impulse with different dissociation degrees are analysed in three discharge schemes. The results show that non-equilibrium plasma can effectively increase methane burning rate, shorten unburnt area upstream of combustion chamber, and increase the width of combustion zone in shear layer upstream of combustion chamber. And this phenomenon becomes more obvious with the increase of excitation intensity. In addition, more methane and oxygen are added to the combustion process under plasma actuation, and the mole fraction of water is increased in combustion products. The specific impulse of engine is also increased under plasma actuation. At the same degree of dissociation, the combustion-supporting effect of simultaneous discharge of oxygen and methane is significantly greater than that of any component discharge. And in the condition of single component discharge, the combustion-supporting effect of methane is better than that of oxygen.