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Numerical simulation and optimization on heat transfer and fluid

flow in cooling channel of liquid rocket engine thrust chamber

Article  in  Engineering Computations · December 2006

DOI: 10.1108/02644400610707793

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Numerical
Numerical simulation and simulation and
optimization on heat transfer and optimization
fluid flow in cooling channel of
907
liquid rocket engine thrust chamber
Qiuwang Wang, Feng Wu, Min Zeng and Laiqin Luo
State Key Laboratory of Multiphase Flow in Power Engineering,
Xi’an Jiaotong University, Xi’an, China, and
Jiguo Sun
Beijing Aviation Power Institute, China

Abstract
Purpose – To find the optimal number of channels of rocket engine thrust chamber, it was found that
the optimal channel number is 335, at which the cooling effect of the thrust chamber cooling channel
reaches the best, which can be helpful to design rocket engine thrust chamber.
Design/methodology/approach – The commercial computational fluid dynamics (CFD) software
FLUENT with standard k-1 turbulent model was used. The CFD method was validated via comparing
with the available experimental data.
Findings – It was found that both the highest temperature and the maximal heat flux through the wall
on the hot-gas side occurs about the throat region at the symmetrical center of the cooling channel.
Owing to the strong curvature of the cooling channel geometry, the secondary flow reached its strongest
level around the throat region. The typical values of pressure drop and temperature difference between
the inlet and exit of cooling channel were 2.7 MPa and 67.38 K (standard case), respectively. Besides an
optimal number of channels exist, and it is approximately 335, which can make the effect of heat transfer
of cooling channels best with acceptable pressure drop. As a whole, the present study gives some useful
information to the thermal design of liquid rocket engine thrust chamber.
Research limitations/implications – More detailed computation and optimization should be
performed for the fluid flow and heat transfer of cooling channel.
Practical implications – A very useful optimization on heat transfer and fluid flow in cooling
channel of liquid rocket engine thrust chamber.
Originality/value – This paper provides the performance of optimization on heat transfer and fluid
flow in cooling channel of liquid rocket engine thrust chamber, which can make the effect of heat
transfer of cooling channels best with acceptable pressure drop. As a whole, the present study gives
some useful information to the thermal design of liquid rocket engine thrust chamber.
Keywords Liquids, Rocket engines, Heat transfer, Gases, Optimization techniques
Paper type Research paper

Nomenclature
A ¼ Local cross-sectional area, m2 A1 ¼ area of base plane of ribs, m2
A0 ¼ Area of wall at hot-gas side, m2 A2 ¼ area of the extrude part of ribs, m2 Engineering Computations:
International Journal for
Computer-Aided Engineering and
Software
Vol. 23 No. 8, 2006
This work was supported by the NSFC Fund for Creative Research Groups (Grant No. 50521604) pp. 907-921
q Emerald Group Publishing Limited
and Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University (Grant No. NCET-04-0938) of 0264-4401
China. DOI 10.1108/02644400610707793
EC At ¼ cross-sectional area of throat, m2 0
Tw ¼ wall temperature of gas-solid
C* ¼ characteristic velocity, m s2 1 coupled base surface, K
23,8 Cp ¼ specific heat at constant pressure, T* ¼ stagnation temperature, K
kJ kg2 1 K2 1 T
hyd ¼ channel average temperature of
Cm ¼ constant in turbulence model hydrogen gas, K
C1 ¼ constant in turbulence model u ¼ velocity along x direction, m s2 1
C2 ¼ constant in turbulence model uavg ¼ mean flow velocity of inlet, m s2 1
908 Dt ¼ diameter at nozzle throat, m v ¼ velocity along y direction, m s2 1
h ¼ convective heat transfer w ¼ velocity along z direction, m s2 1
coefficient, W m2 2 W ¼ width of cooling channels, m
hhyd ¼ convective heat transfer Wf ¼ width of ribs in cooling channels, m
coefficient at gas-solid coupled x ¼ x axis of Cartesian Coordinate
interface, W m2 2 K y ¼ y axis of Cartesian Coordinate
hgas ¼ convective heat transfer coefficient z ¼ z axis of Cartesian Coordinate
at hot-gas side wall, W m2 2 K
I ¼ turbulence intensity, percent Greek symbols
k ¼ ratio of specific heats; Turbulent s ¼ dimensionless factor accounting
kinetic energy, J m2 3 for all corrections of property
l ¼ turbulent length scale, m variation across boundary layer
m _ ¼ mass flow rate, kg/s sk ¼ turbulent Prandtl numbers for k
Ma ¼ Mach number ¼ v/a s1 ¼ turbulent Prandtl numbers for 1
Mr ¼ relative molecular mass sT ¼ turbulent Prandtl numbers for T
n ¼ normal outwardly with respect to r ¼ density of hydrogen gas, kg m2 3
solid wall f ¼ general variable of conservation
p*c ¼ chamber pressure, Pa equations
P ¼ pressure of hydrogen gas, MPa h ¼ viscosity, kg m2 1 s2 1
P H2 O ¼ partial pressure of H2O ht ¼ turbulent viscosity, kg m2 1 s2 1
P CO2 ¼ partial pressure of CO2 heff ¼ effective turbulent viscosity,
Pr ¼ Prandtl number ¼ n/a kg m2 1 s2 1 ( ¼ h þ ht)
qr ¼ radiative heat flux, W m2 2 hhyd ¼ rib efficiency at hydrogen gas side
qw ¼ wall heat flux, W m2 2 1 ¼ dissipation rate of turbulent kinetic
qw,highest ¼ highest wall heat flux at hot gas energy, m2 s2 3
side, W m2 2 1g ¼ emissivity of hot gas
S ¼ source terms 1H2 O ¼ emissivity of water vapour
T ¼ temperature, K 1CO2 ¼ emissivity of carbon dioxide
Texit ¼ Outlet temperature of hydrogen d ¼ thickness of wall, m
gas, K dT ¼ local temperature difference
Tgas ¼ hot gas static temperature, K between gas-solid coupled
Thyd ¼ temperature of hydrogen gas, K interface and hydrogen gas, K
Tin ¼ inlet temperature of hydrogen gas, l ¼ thermal conductivity of hydrogen
K gas, W K2 1 m2 1
Tw ¼ wall temperature at gas side, K Gf ¼ diffuse coefficient
Tw,highest ¼ highest wall temperature at hot gas DT ¼ inlet-outlet temperature difference
side, K for hydrogen gas, K

1. Introduction
The modern liquid rocket engine thrust chambers are exposed to high pressure and
high temperature environments. The flow in the thrust chamber is turbulent and
supersonic. In the H2/O2 liquid rocket engine, the flow and heat transfer of
hydrogen gas in the cooling channel may be characterized as weakly compressible,
high heat transfer rates, high Reynolds number turbulent flow and strong curvature Numerical
effects in the cooling channel. Reducing wall temperature at hot-gas side wall by
50-1008C could result in the doubling of the chamber life cycle, which is very
simulation and
important to the industry of spaceflight due to the expensive cost of manufacturing. optimization
Therefore, how to enhance the cooling rate of thrust chamber is very important to
the rocket engine.
Frohlich et al. (1991) and Lebail and Popp (1993) calculated the thermal 909
performance of cooling channel, and owing to the limit of computer resource, only a
parabolic marching numerical procedure was employed to calculate the flow and
heat transfer in the rectangular cooling channels without re-circulation along the
cooling channel. An integrated numerical models which incorporated computational
fluid dynamics (CFD) for the hot-gas thermal environment, and thermal analysis for
the liner and coolant channels, was developed by Wang and Luong (1992). Lai et al.
(1994) proposed a concurrent processing approach for the coupling of
multi-disciplinary analysis codes. Schmidt et al. (1998) has shown that the most
efficient and straightforward design measure for increasing heat transfer of rocket
chamber is decreasing of the hot gas wall surface temperature in the thrust chamber.
Three concepts for enhancing heat transfer to the coolant have been selected and
investigated experimentally by comprehensive subscale chamber hot-fire tests
(Immich et al., 2003): increasing the length of chamber cylinder, increasing the
number of hot gas wall side ribs and artificially increasing the surface roughness.
Heat transfer simulation and analysis of single geometrical parameter of liquid
rocket cooling channel have been fulfilled, and the enhanced heat transfer by ribs
has been reported in Immich et al. (1999, 2000). Li and Liu (2004) gained the
temperature field in solid region of cooling channel using two-dimensional heat
conduction model. Bucchi and Bruno (2005) investigated the heat transfer in the
transpiration cooling performance in lox/methane liquid-fuel rocket engines, in which
the real gas property was adopted. Wang and Luong (2004, 1994) studied on the
cooling mechanism in liquid rocket engine. They concentrated on the methods of
regenerative cooling and curtain cooling. They studied the hot-gas-side and
coolant-side heat transfer in liquid rocket engine combustors using the holistic
coupled model. In the liquid film cooling aspect, some experimental and analytical
results have been reported in Kinney and Dukler (1952), Knuth (1953), William (1991)
and Yan et al. (1991), but the details of transport process in the boundary layer have
not been taken into account. Zhang et al. (2006) numerically studied the phenomena
that characterize the exchange of heat and mass transfer between a hot gas stream
and a thin liquid film in the two-dimensional model, in which the effects of gaseous
radiation, external cooling and high temperature and high pressure of gases were all
taken into account.
Three-dimensional analysis of heat transfer and fluid flow in a cooling channel of
liquid rocket engine thrust chamber using gas-solid coupled technique was reported in
Wu and Wang (2003) and Wu et al. (2005a, b). The computational results agreed well
with the corresponding experimental results. To the authors’ knowledge, the optimized
calculation and analysis about cooling channel have not been reported. In this paper,
the gas-solid coupled technique is adopted for seeking the optimal number of cooling
channels for a liquid rocket engine thrust chamber. Figure 1 shows the thrust chamber
of liquid rocket engine, for which totally 300 channels are used for cooling, and the total
EC
23,8

910

Figure 1.
Thrust chamber with
cooling channel

mass flow-rate for 300 channels are 18.0 kg/s. The cooling channel is made up of
copper, nickel shell and steel. The coolant is hydrogen gas with typical inlet
temperature of 40 K and pressure of 15.2 MPa.

2. Mathematical description and numerical methods

2.1 Mathematical description
Figure 2 shows the cross-section of one cooling channel. As shown in the figure, the
calculation may be carried out only for one-half of the channel because of the
geometrical symmetry.

Figure 2.
Typical cooling channel
cross-section
In the present work, the fluid flow and heat transfer in the cooling channel was Numerical
assumed to be three-dimensional, steady-state and turbulent. The coolant (working
fluid) is hydrogen gas. The conservation equations of fluid flow and heat transfer are
simulation and
expressed as (Tao, 2000): optimization
~ fÞ ¼ 7 · ðGf 7fÞ þ S f
7 · ð rV ð1Þ
where the expressions of f, Gf and Sf for different variables can be found in Table I.
911
The standard k-1 two-equation turbulence model is employed to simulate the
turbulent channel flow. Table II shows the corresponding values of constants in
the turbulence model.
The convective heat transfer coefficient for the hot-gas side was calculated by the
Bartz (1957) formula:
 0:2  * 0:8  0:9
0:026 h Cp pc At
hgas ¼ s ð2Þ
d 0:2 Pr 0:6 C* A
The dimensionless factor, s accounting for all corrections of property variation across
boundary layer, was calculated by:
   20:68  20:12
Tw k21 k21
s ¼ 0:5 * 1 þ Ma 2 þ 0:5 1þ Ma 2 ð3Þ
T 2 2
Prandtl number and viscosity h was approximately calculated by:
4k
Pr < ð4Þ
ð9k 2 5Þ

h < 1:184 £ 1027 M 0:5

r T
0:6
ð5Þ

Equations f Gf Sf

Continuity equation 1 0
0


u equation u heff 2 ››px þ ››x heff ››ux þ ››y heff ››xv þ ››z heff ››wx
     
v equation v heff 2 ››py þ ››x heff ››uy þ ››y heff ››vy þ ››z heff ››wy




w equation w heff 2 ››pz þ ››x heff ››uz þ ››y heff ››vz þ ››z heff ››wz
Energy equation T h/Pr þ h/sT 0
k equation k h þ ðht =sk Þ r Gk 2 r 1
1
1 equation 1 h þ ðht =s1 Þ k ðC 1 rGk 2 C 2 r1Þ Table I.
Note: Gk ¼ ðht =rÞ½ð›u=›xÞ2 þ ð›v=›yÞ2 þ ð›w=›zÞ2
þ ðð›u=›yÞ þ ð›v=›xÞÞ2 þ ðð›u=›zÞ þð›w=›xÞÞ2 Expressions of f, Gf and
þðð›v=›zÞ þ ð›w=›yÞÞ2 Sf for different variables

Cm C1 C2 sk s1 sT Table II.
Constants in k-1
0.09 1.44 1.92 1.0 1.3 0.85 turbulence model
EC The radiation heat transfer of hot-gas side was calculated by:
23,8  
qr ¼ 1g s T 4gas 2 T 4w ð6Þ

where Tgas is the temperature of hot gas, Tw is the wall temperature of hot-gas side,
1g is the effective emissivity of hot gas.
912
2.2 Numerical methods and boundary conditions
The numerical simulation work was carried out by the commercial software FLUENT
and the grid system was built in GAMBIT. The numerical method for solving the
governing equations was based on the conservation finite-volume method. The Re
number of computational rocket engine cooling channel reaches 7.6 £ 105. In
references Takase (1996) and Choi and Anand (1995), the standard k-1 two-equation
model has been used to simulate turbulent heat transfer with high Reynolds
(Re ¼ 300-60,000) number in a limited channel, and the numerical results agreed well
with the experimental data. Thus, in this paper the standard k-1 two-equation
turbulence model was also employed. The SIMPLER algorithm was used to solve the
pressure-velocity coupled equations. The QUICK scheme was used for convection
terms in the governing equations. Standard wall function method was adopted for the
near-wall treatment. The first grid node away from the wall was placed at
the non-dimensional distance yþ
p ¼ 30 , 300: The total number of grid points in the
calculation domain was 300(x) £ 40(y) £ 60(z), which was fine enough to obtain
grid-independent results.
The boundary conditions of computational domain are described as shown in
Figure 2.
At inlet:
_ ¼ 0:03 kg=s; T ¼ 40 K; P ¼ 15:2 MPa ðtypical caseÞ
fluid region : m ð7aÞ
k 3=2
k ¼ 1:5ðuavg I Þ2 ; 1 ¼ C 3=4
m ð7bÞ
l
›T
solid region : ¼ 0; u ¼ v ¼ w ¼ 0 ð7cÞ
›x
At outlet:
›u ›v ›w › T ›k ›1
fluid region : ¼ ¼ ¼ ¼ ¼ ¼0 ð7dÞ
›x ›x ›x ›x ›x ›x
›T
solid region : ¼ 0; u ¼ v ¼ w ¼ k ¼ 1 ¼ 0 ð7eÞ
›x
›T
boundary ab : ¼ 0; u ¼ v ¼ w ¼ k ¼ 1 ¼ 0 ð7fÞ
›z
Boundary bc:
›u ›w ›T › k ›1
fluid region : ¼ ¼ ¼ ¼ ¼ 0; v ¼ 0 ð7gÞ
›y ›y ›y ›y ›y
 solid region :
›T
¼ 0; u ¼ v ¼ w ¼ k ¼ 1 ¼ 0 ð7hÞ
Numerical
›y simulation and
›T optimization
Boundary ad : ¼ 0; u ¼ 0; v ¼ w ¼ k ¼ 1 ¼ 0 ð7iÞ
›y
 
cT
Boundary cd : ðhgas þ hr ÞðT w 2 T gas Þ ¼ 2l : ð7jÞ 913
›n wall
Equation (7j) is a heat balance at the boundary between hot gas and solid wall, l is the
thermal conductivity of solid wall, n is an outward normal coordinate and (›T/›n)wall is
temperature gradient indicating solid wall normal to the outward. hgas is the convective
heat transfer coefficient, determined by Bartz formula (equation (2)), and hr is the
radiative heat transfer coefficient, determined by:
 
4 4
qr 1 g s T w 2 T gas
hr ¼ ¼ ð7kÞ
T w 2 T gas T w 2 T gas
Hot gas emissivity 1g is calculated by the equation 1g ¼ 1H2 O þ 1CO2 2 1H2 O · 1CO2 ;
1H2 O and 1CO2 are determinated by partial pressure pH2 O ; pCO2 and hot gas static
temperature Tg, which can be found in Feng and Zhang (1991). The gas emissivity has
little influence on the heat transfer in rocket engine thrust chamber when it varies
within small range. According to the conditions of this study, the emissivity 1g is
about 0.45.

3. Results and discussion

3.1 Validation of numerical model
The standard k , 1 turbulence model and large eddy simulation (LES) were used to
simulate temperature and velocity distribution in fluid and solid region of the
regenerative-cooling channel in order to test and validate the calculation method and
model (Wu et al., 2005a). The Smagorinsky-Lilly subgrid scale model was used, which
is the most basic of subgrid-scale models proposed by Smagorinsky and further
developed by Smagorinsky (1963), Lilly (1966) and Yuu et al. (2001). The simulation
results of the two turbulence models are compared with the experimental data at
different calculation grids (Table III). It is shown that under the same grids, the results
obtained by standard k , 1 turbulence model agreed better with the experimental data
than those by LES. The deviations of inlet-outlet temperature difference and
inlet-outlet pressure drop were 4.3 and 12.5 percent between numerical results by k , 1
model and experimental data, respectively. With the increase of calculation grids, the
calculation precision of LES was gradually enhanced. In this paper, the standard k , 1
turbulence model was adopted to simulate and optimize the heat transfer and flow of
liquid rocket engine chamber.

3.2 Numerical analysis of a standard case

The above procedure was first applied to predict the turbulent flow and heat transfer in
a typical cooling channel of a rocket engine thrust chamber (Figure 1). In the present
calculation, the roughness of copper surface was assumed to be 6.5 mm, while it was
50 mm for nickel surface. The cross-section average temperature and heat flux
 EC
23,8

914

Table III.

different grids
LES model under
among experimental
data, k , 1 model and
Comparisons of results
Temperature difference between inlet and outlet of Pressure drop between inlet and outlet of hydrogen
hydrogen gas (K) gas (MPa)
Turbulence models/experimental data 285 £ 12 £ 30 300 £ 20 £ 40 300 £ 30 £ 45 285 £ 12 £ 30 300 £ 20 £ 40 300 £ 30 £ 45

LES 96.5 97.7 102.2 0.06 0.10 0.138

k-1 106.3 106.3 106.5 0.35 0.35 0.352
Experimental data 110 0.4
distributions in the wall on the hot gas side along the flow direction are shown in Numerical
Figure 3, which indicates that the highest wall temperature (545.9 K) on the hot gas side simulation and
occurred at the throat region (x ¼ 0.38 m). The melting point temperature of copper is
900 K (Feng and Zhang, 1991), so it indicates that the copper was within the safe range. optimization
On the other hand, the maximal heat flux (6.34 £ 107 W/m2) imposed to the wall on the
hot gas side also occurred at the throat region. The pressure drop and temperature
difference between the inlet and the exit of the cooling channel are 2.7 MPa and 67.38 K, 915
respectively. It may be seen that the copper wall of the throat region in the hot gas side
must endure the highest temperature and maximal heat flux, so this region should be
taken into special account during the thermal design of thrust chamber.
Variations of average hydrogen gas temperature in a cooling channel and average
convective heat transfer coefficient at a gas-solid coupled interface are shown in
Figure 4. Variations of average wall temperature and heat flux at a gas-solid coupled
interface are shown in Figure 5. It indicates that maximal heat flux and maximal
convective heat transfer coefficient simultaneously occur at the throat region of rocket

Figure 3.
Variations of wall
temperature Tw and heat
flux qw at the hot-gas side

Figure 4.
Variations of average
temperature of hydrogen
gas Thyd in cooling
channel and average
convective heat transfer
coefficient hhyd at
gas-solid coupled interface
EC
23,8

916

Figure 5.
Variations of average wall
temperature and heat flux
at gas-solid coupled
interface

thrust chamber because the velocity of hydrogen gas V reaches the maximum value
near the throat region (Figure 6), whose cross-sectional area is minimum. Figure 6 also
shows the local distribution of temperature difference dT between the gas-solid
coupled interface and hydrogen gas.
Figures 7 and 8 show the temperature contours and velocity distributions in
different regions (inlet, outlet and throat) along the x coordinate. It can be seen from
these figures the temperature distribution in the cross-section at the throat region is
higher than those at the other two cross-sections. The highest temperature in the cross
section occurred at point c and the maximal heat flux occurred at point d of the copper
wall on the hot-gas side (Figure 2). This is because the heat conduction effect of the
copper ribs at point d enhances the heat transfer of the cooling channels.

3.3 Optimization simulation

The thrust chamber liner is made from copper, with axial slots milled into this copper
body. Recent experimental study on the high-aspect-ratio cooling passages
demonstrated that a large number of cooling passages increase the potential for

Figure 6.
Variations of average
velocity V and
temperature difference dT
between gas-solid coupled
interface and hydrogen gas
 Numerical
simulation and
optimization

917

Figure 7.
Temperature distribution
of cooling channel in
different regions
(not to scale)

Figure 8.
Velocity distribution of
cooling channel at
different regions
(not to scale)

longer life than fewer channels under given thrust chamber dimensions. More channels
results in larger aspect ratios in the channel cross-section (Lebail and Popp, 1993). In
order to improve heat transfer rate of rocket cooling channels, an optimization
calculation was performed to find out the optimal number of cooling channels. Under
the same boundary conditions and keeping the height of channel and width of the fins
as constants, when the number of cooling channels was changed, the width of channels
and the mass flow-rate of hydrogen gas in the single cooling channel were changed.
By changing the number of the cooling channels, the heat transfer characteristics of
cooling channels were changed consequently. Variations of highest wall temperature
Tw and average heat flux qav of the wall in the hot-gas side versus the number of the
EC cooling channels are shown in Figure 9. The variations of pressure drop DP and the
temperature difference DT between the inlet and exit of cooling channels coolant are
23,8 shown in Figure 10.
Figures 9 and 10 show that there exists an optimal number of cooling channels (about
335), which has highest wall heat flux (about 31 MW/m2) at hot gas side wall and highest
temperature difference (about 76 K) between inlet and outlet, and lowest wall temperature
918 (about 550 K) at hot gas wall, while the pressure drop between inlet and outlet is not so high
(about 1.3 MPa) and may be acceptable from the engineering point of view.
This phenomenon could be explained as follows. The average temperature of
hydrogen gas in the cooling channels can be defined as the average value of the inlet
and exit gas temperature:
ðT in þ T exit Þ
T
hyd ¼ ð8Þ
2
The values calculated for different numbers of channels are displayed in Table IV.

Figure 9.
Variations of highest
temperature and wall
highest heat flux at
hot-gas side wall

Figure 10.
Variations of temperature
difference and pressure
drop between inlet and
outlet of cooling channel
It can be seen from Table IV that the average temperature of hydrogen gas almost Numerical
keeps constant. Figure 11 shows the heat transfer resistance sketch map of cooling simulation and
channels. We may assume that 1/[(hhyd þ hr)A0] and d/(lA0) (Figure 11) keep constant
when the average temperature of hot gas (Tgas) and hydrogen gas (Thyd) keep constant. optimization
With the increase of the number of cooling channels, the velocity of hydrogen gas will
increase, so both the convective heat transfer coefficient of hydrogen gas in cooling
channels, hhyd, and the fin area A2, will increase. On the other hand, both the base area 919
A1 and rib efficiency hhyd will decrease. As a result, there exists an optimal number of
channels which leads (A1 þ A2hhyd)hhyd to achieve maximum value, and hence the
temperature of the wall in the hot-gas side (Tw in Figure 11) comes to its minimum, and
the corresponding heat flux at hot-gas side wall reaches the maximum (Figure 9).
It should be noted that for thrust chamber for liquid rocket engine, having the highest
wall heat flux at side wall with the smallest penalty of pressure drop is the most
important for thermal design of rocket engine thrust chamber.

N 125 150 225 330 355 375 Table IV.

T
hyd for different
T
hyd ðKÞ 82.0 82.48 82.59 83.3 82.8 82.6 numbers of channels

Figure 11.
Heat transfer resistance
sketch map of cooling
channel
EC 4. Conclusions
23,8 A three-dimensional gas-solid coupling solution program was employed to calculate the
flow and heat transfer in cooling channels of thrust chamber with high aspect ratio. The
numerical method was validated by comparing the calculated results with previous
experimental data. It indicates that both the highest temperature and the maximal heat
flux through the wall on the hot-gas side occurs about the throat region at the
920 symmetrical center of the cooling channel. Owing to the strong curvature of the cooling
channel geometry, the secondary flow reached its strongest level around the throat
region. The typical values of pressure drop and temperature difference between the inlet
and exit of cooling channel were 2.7 MPa and 67.38 K (standard case), respectively.
Based on the calculation and analysis of heat transfer character of the cooling
channels by changing number of cooling channels and keeping boundary conditions
constant, it was found that an optimal number of channel exists, and it is
approximately 335, which can make the effect of heat transfer of cooling channels best
with acceptable pressure drop. As a whole, the present study gives some useful
information to the thermal design of liquid rocket engine thrust chamber.

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Corresponding author
Qiuwang Wang can be contacted at: [email protected]

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