Contribution to the physical description of supercritical cold flow injection: The case of nitrogen

While increased pressure and temperature contribute to an overall efficiency gain in the mixing of propellants and oxidizers, characteristic of conditions in the combustion chambers of liquid rocket engines, they also propel mixtures to trans- and supercritical conditions. In these conditions, the engine flow exhibits a gas jet-like behavior that may be described using an approach developed for variable density incompressible flows. The present study focuses on an approach using the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations to evaluate the jet topology for different injectors' conditions. Based on the so-called 'thermal breakup mechanism concept' proposed in the literature, the axial density decay in supercritical nitrogen jets is predicted for a wide range of conditions. The results show the influence of thermal breakup, providing a better insight of the available experimental data.

Automated summary

This study focuses on evaluating gas jet topology for different injector conditions using the Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations, predicting the axial density decay in supercritical nitrogen jets based on the thermal breakup mechanism concept. The results provide a better understanding of the available experimental data.