Simulating Methane-Oxygen Supersonic Combustion in a Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine (RDRE)

Using CONVERGE, Dr. Sinan Demir and Dr. Pinaki Pal (Argonne National Laboratory) performed a large eddy simulation (LES) of methane-oxygen combustion in a full-scale rotating detonation rocket engine (RDRE). The first view shows the initial transient phase when the RDRE is ignited using a pre-detonator tube containing a stoichiometric methane-oxygen mixture (spark-ignited at the far end). Fuel and air enter at the bottom of the RDRE chamber through separate discrete injectors (shown in black and gray, respectively). Multiple reaction waves are initiated in the RDRE combustion chamber, and the combustion products are exhausted from the other end of the chamber. The second view, which corresponds to the unrolled mid-plane of the RDRE chamber, shows the quasi-steady-state behavior with sustained propagation of three quasi-detonation waves. This simulation accurately predicts both the number of waves and the wave speed. CONVERGE’s Adaptive Mesh Refinement enables computationally efficient, high-fidelity CFD simulations of full-scale RDEs. Engineers can leverage these simulations to design and optimize RDEs for practical hypersonic propulsion applications.
Convergent Science's CONVERGE is an innovative computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software that eliminates the grid generation bottleneck from the simulation process through autonomous meshing.

[@Hugh345678]

Cool, I assume with the beautiful stable shocks that the propellent was simulated as a premixed gas? Or have you simulated the injectors too?

[@convergecfd]

Thank you for your question! The injectors were simulated in this case. The fuel and air enter the RDRE combustion chamber through separate discrete injectors, shown here as the small black and gray cylinders (for the fuel and air, respectively) around the bottom of the chamber.

[@Hugh345678]

@@convergecfd that's cool, super nice Sim then!

[@irieblue007]

@convergecfd so are you solving Compressible Navier Stokes equations here since mach > 1?

[@convergecfd]

Hi, thanks for your interest! Yes, compressible Navier-Stokes equations were solved. To capture the detonation and shock waves adequately, adaptive mesh refinement (AMR) was used and the Mach Courant-Friedrichs-Lewy (CFL) number was prescribed to be < 1.

[@alexanderdora98]

I did not expect it to rotate clockwise. Why did that happen? In one of your other videos it the wave followed the initial main wave rotation direction.
It is also interesting to me, how a singe detonation wave can trigger more to follow.

[@convergecfd]

Thanks for your question! This methane-oxygen RDRE is quite different from the hydrogen-air RDEs in our previous videos. Differences in the RDE configuration, fuel/oxidizer, and operating condition can lead to different initial wave dynamics, which can ultimately result in a different wave direction during quasi-steady state. Even for the same RDE configuration, wave direction can change depending on the operating condition. The wave direction is an outcome of the complex combustor/plenum interactions and the associated combustion dynamics within the RDE.

[@chillaragoutham6092]

Is there any available tutorial or documentation for this simulation?

[@convergecfd]

Thank you for your interest in this simulation! To request more information about this case, please fill out the contact form on our website: convergecfd.com/about/contact-us