Numerical investigation of two- and three-dimensional heat transfer in expander cycle engines

The concept of using tube canting for enhancing the hot-side convective heat transfer in a cross-stream tubular rocket combustion chamber is evaluated using a CFD technique in this study. The heat transfer at the combustor wall is determined from the flow field generated by a modified version of the PARC Navier-Stokes Code, using the actual dimensions, fluid properties, and design parameters of a split-expander demonstrator cycle engine. The effects of artificial dissipation on convergence and solution accuracy are investigated. Heat transfer results predicted by the code are presented. The use of CFD in heat transfer calculations is critically examined to demonstrate the care needed in the use of artificial dissipation for good convergence and accurate solutions.