ISBN 9783843924566

978-3-8439-2456-6, Reihe Raumfahrt

Konrad Makowka
Numerically Efficient Hybrid RANS/LES of Supersonic Combustion

259 Seiten, Dissertation Technische Universität München (2015), Softcover, A5

Zusammenfassung / Abstract

Supersonic combustion engines offer the potential to enhance today’s space transportation by improving the efficiency of a space launcher system resulting in a payload increase. However, present-day understanding of the processes governing engines of this type is not on the same level as the knowledge of conventional rockets or turbojet propulsion systems, yet. In a first step, this work contributes a computational fluid dynamics flow solver developed for the simulation of supersonic combustion. Based on this solver, methods are proposed that shall combine the computationally expensive large eddy simulation (LES) with the efficient Reynolds-averaged Navier Stokes (RANS) methodology in a hybrid model. The goal is the prediction of transient, turbulent combustion processes based on LES, while maintaining an affordable computational cost by means of a boundary layer treatment with RANS. Furthermore, a model for combustion induced turbulence is proposed. The developed solver and models are applied to three different test cases relevant for supersonic combustion. The first test case is a supersonic injection experiment without combustion conducted at the Institute for Flight Propulsion at TUM. Subsequently, an often-cited supersonic diffusion flame experiment by NASA is investigated. Finally, this work results in the hybrid RANS/LES simulation of the supersonic combustion chamber at the Institute of Aerospace Thermodynamics at the University of Stuttgart.