Convective heat transfer characteristics of China RP-3 aviation kerosene at supercritical pressure

Regenerative cooling of aviation kerosene plays an important role for thermal protection of scramjet engines. Since the thermophysical properties of kerosene change acutely near the pseudo-critical point, heat convective in kerosene pipe flow is complicated. Here the convective heat transfer characteristics of China RP-3 aviation kerosene at a supercritical pressure are numerically studied using the finite volume method. The RNG k-epsilon two-equation turbulence model with enhanced wall treatment is considered. The heat transfer with different constant wall heat fluxes is analyzed, and a correlation of heat transfer enhancement is obtained. The effect of mass flow rate on the convective heat transfer with a varying wall heat flux condition at the supercritical pressure is also investigated. Because of the special thermophysical properties of the kerosene at supercritical pressure, the Nussult number is only related to the Reynolds number after the heat transfer is enhanced. The simulation results are compared with the empirical formulas in the literature. (C) 2011 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.