Launching Liquid Slugs Through Tube Networks: Investigating Multiphase Liquid Slug Acceleration Behaviors in Spacecraft Propulsion Systems using 3D Multiphase VOF CFD Simulations and High-Speed Flow-Visualization Validation Experiments

Propellant management in spacecraft propulsion systems is complex. In many current and future crewed and robotic spacecraft propulsion systems, a number of unintended or unavoidable scenarios can occasionally lead to liquid “slugs” of propellant accumulating in unwanted locations and thereafter being rapidly accelerated through complex and arbitrary tubing networks otherwise filled with vapor or gas. To develop better understanding of the multiphase fluid dynamics associated with these “slug launch” scenarios, NASA Marshal Space Flight Center’s (MSFC) ER42 branch – the propulsion fluid dynamics research branch – conducted 3D multiphase transient Volume of Fluid (VOF) CFD simulations using an in-house tool called LOCI-Stream VOF on semi-canonical tube networks with straight sections, bends, and bend complexes. In addition, high-speed flow visualization validation experiments using propellants were conducted on similar tube network geometries at the NASA White Sands Test Facility (WSTF). These simulations and flow-visualization experiments found these scenarios lead to a variety of unique multiphase fluid dynamic effects involving the leading and trailing edges of the slug in both straight sections and curved bends as well as the progressive erosion, acceleration, and eventual “punch-through” of the driving gas through the liquid slug. Understanding these multiphase fluid dynamic effects has led to unique and often counter-intuitive observations which have been of critical relevance to important engineering concerns associated with these “slug launch” scenarios.