Supercritical Injection Modeling by an Incompressible but Variable Density Approach

Supercritical nitrogen jet behavior is modeled using an incompressible but variable density approach developed for variable density jets. Following mechanical and thermal breakup concepts, several injection conditions relevant to liquid rocket propulsion are analyzed, considering heat transfer in the injector. Regarding axial density distributions, different levels of agreement with experimental data are encountered for potential core, subsided core, and plateau formations. Further comparisons with compressible formulations from the literature are a good indicator of the proposed methodology's suitability for the simulation of supercritical injection behavior.

Automated summary

Supercritical nitrogen jet behavior is simulated using a variable density approach, considering heat transfer in the injector. The proposed methodology's suitability for simulating supercritical injection behavior is validated through comparisons with experimental data and compressible formulations from the literature.