Deterioration in Heat Transfer of Endothermal Hydrocarbon Fuel

Numerical studies under supercritical pressure are carried out to study the heat transfer characteristics in a single-root coolant channel of the active regenerative cooling system of the scramjet engine, using actual physical properties of pentane. The relationships between wall temperature and inlet temperature, mass flow rate, wall heat flux, inlet pressure, as well as center stream temperature are obtained. The results suggest that the heat transfer deterioration occurs when the fuel temperature approaches the pseudo-critical temperature, and the wall temperature increases rapidly and heat transfer coefficient decreases sharply. The decrease of wall heat flux, as well as the increase of mass flow rate and inlet pressure makes the starting point of the heat transfer deterioration and the peak point of the wall temperature move backward. The wall temperature increment induced by heat transfer deterioration decreases, which could reduce the severity of the heat transfer deterioration. The relational expression of the heat transfer deterioration critical heat flux derives from the relationship of the mass flow rate and the inlet pressure.