Applied Thermal Engineering 54 (2013) 460e469

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Applied Thermal Engineering

journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/apthermeng

Numerical simulation of liquid film and regenerative cooling in a

liquid rocket
Wei Yang*, Bing Sun
Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, School of Astronautics, 37 Xueyuan Rd, Haidian District, Beijing 100191, People’s Republic of China

h i g h l i g h t s

< 3-D numerical simulation for the film and regenerative cooling has been done.
< Coupled heat transfer for hot-gas/film/regenerative coolant/channel was analyzed.
< The liquid film and regenerative cooling decreases the wall heat flux effectively.
< The cooling effect of two rings of film coolant is better than that of one ring.

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: The numerical simulation of the liquid film and regenerative cooling in an LOx/RP-1 liquid rocket was
Received 13 November 2012 conducted using time-averaged NaviereStokes equations for compressible steady 3-D flow. The coupled
Accepted 15 February 2013 heat transfers between the hot-gas, film, regenerative coolant and cooling channel were considered to be
Available online 26 February 2013
separated into two parts: coolant/cooling channel conjugate heat transfer calculation and the film/hot-
gas side flow and heat transfer analysis. The results show that the method in this paper can simulate the
Keywords:
heat transfer well, and the liquid film and regenerative cooling is an effective way to protect a thrust
Liquid rocket
chamber wall. The liquid film cooling decreases the temperature of the inner wall and the heat flux
Liquid film and regenerative cooling
Conjugate heat transfer
transferred from the hot-gas to the regenerative coolant effectively, especially those of the throat.
Thrust chamber Moreover, the cooling effect of two rings of film coolant is better than that of one ring of film coolant.
Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction engines to manage heat transfer between hot, reacting gases

According to the needs of high thrust liquid rocket engines,
higher combustor pressure and higher hot-gas temperature leads
to an increase in the difficulty in the cooling system design in a
liquid rocket engine. Because of the large heat flux transferred from
the hot-gas to the inner wall, especially at the throat of the
chamber, an effective cooling method should be adopted to protect
the chamber wall temperature under a practicable value [1].
Furthermore, the trend of reusable ability also requires that the
cooling system can protect the chamber wall from thermal dete-
rioration by using less coolant [2].
Liquid film cooling and regenerative cooling are two of the
most important methods in liquid rocket cooling systems. Liquid
film cooling was widely used in conventional liquid rocket
* Corresponding author. Tel.: þ86 10 82339058; fax: þ86 10 82338451.
E-mail address: maggieyangxie@sa.buaa.edu.cn (W. Yang).
and cooler structural components because of its high cooling
effectiveness [3e5]. Studies on liquid film cooling have been carried
out in many investigations [6e10], which refer to different aspects
including the influence of the mass flux ratio quantities, injection
angle, hole shape, length to diameter of the jet channel, jet array
arrangements, jet holes streamwise or spanwise spacing, jet and
crossflow Reynolds numbers, density ratio, jet and crossflow tur-
bulence intensity, compressibility effects and so on.
Regenerative cooling is also a usual cooling method adopted in
liquid rockets of huge thrust because it decreases the wall heat
fluxes effectively, especially the throat heat flux [11,12]. In-
vestigations on regenerative cooling have also been carried out in
many papers, in which computational fluid dynamics (CFD) has
been considered generally [13e17]. Furthermore, experiments have
been carried out in many regenerative cooling studies [18,19]. In
these studies, many factors have been considered including the
properties of the hot-gas, gas radiation, geometrical factors of the
cooling channel, rib effect, the properties change of the materials
and the coolant, the flow loss and so on.

1359-4311/$ e see front matter Ó 2013 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.applthermaleng.2013.02.021
 W. Yang, B. Sun / Applied Thermal Engineering 54 (2013) 460e469
Nomenclature
A cross-sectional area (m2)
c* characteristic velocity (m/s)
Cp heat capacity (J/kg K1)
c concentration
Cm turbulence-modeling constants
D diameter (m)
h enthalpy, heat transfer coefficient (J/kg)
I grid number in the axial direction
J grid number in the radial direction
k turbulence kinetic energy (m2/s2)
K grid number in the circumferential direction
L length (m)
P pressure (Pa)
Pr Prandtl number
q heat flux (W/m2)
Sc Schmidt number
There were few studies on the liquid film and regenerative
cooling. H.W. Zhang and his partners did a numerical study of the
film and regenerative cooling in a high pressure thrust chamber [20],
and they used a one-dimensional model for regenerative cooling to
couple two-dimensional model simulation in the thrust chamber.
Jong-Gyu Kim et al. investigated the effects of the changes of the film
cooling mass flow rate and operating conditions on the wall heat
flux characteristics of a liquid rocket engine combustion chamber by
experiment and numerical analysis [21]. The heat transfer problem
was complicated in a thrust chamber, and the traditional method of
evaluating the characteristics in a thrust chamber cooling system
was mainly based on one or two-dimensional analysis [13,22], in
which the structure details have not been presented.
The main object of the present study is to propose a 3-D
computational methodology for the liquid film and regenerative
cooling coupled flow and heat transfer analysis with details of
structures especially the film inlets and the regenerative coolant
channels. This methodology separates the calculation into two
parts, one of which is coolant/cooling channel coupled flow, and
the other is film/hot-gas heat transfer analysis. In this study, nu-
merical simulations have been performed using secondary devel-
opment of the FLUENT solver based on C codes. Three-dimensional
numerical simulations have been conducted on both the liquid RP-
1 film and regenerative cooling in an LOx/RP-1 rocket combustor.
Fig. 1. Schematics of the film and regenerative cooling.
461
T temperature (K)
u velocity (m/s)
x cartesian coordinates (m)
X dimensionless distances of the film location
yþ dimensionless distance to the wall
m viscosity coefficient (Pa s)
r density (kg/m3)
s stress tensor (Pa)
l thermal conductivity (W/m K1)
ε turbulence energy dissipation rate (1/s)
Subscript
c convective, chamber
cool coolant film
st stagnation
t throat, turbulent flow
wg hot-gas side wall
2. Computational methodology
The respective time-averaged NaviereStokes equations are
solved for the compressible steady 3-D flow by the finite volume
method. The standard k  ε model is used as a turbulent model and
the enhanced wall functions have been chosen. The flow field
computations are performed with SIMPLE algorithms on several
blocks of a non-uniform collocated grid.
Fig. 1 shows the schematics of the film and regenerative cooling.
The heat transfer in the film and regenerative cooling in a liquid
rocket combustor involves the following four parts: 1) heat transfer
between the hot-gas and the cooling film; 2) heat transfer from the
film to the internal wall; 3) heat conduction through the chamber
wall; and 4) convective heat transfer from the chamber wall to the
regenerative coolant. Thermal analysis of a rocket engine with
these two cooling methods is a coupled heat transfer problem of
the hot-gas, the cooling film, the chamber wall and the regenerative
coolant. The calculation is separated into two parts which are
calculated respectively: regenerative cooling coupled flow and film/
hot-gas heat transfer analysis; furthermore, the temperature of the
hot-gas/inner wall interface and the heat flux of the inner wall are
interchanged between them. Fig. 2 shows a schematic of the
methodology procedure, in which q[i] means the wall heat fluxes in
the ith calculation. The input q is supposed by the Bartz equation:
462 W. Yang, B. Sun / Applied Thermal Engineering 54 (2013) 460e469

3) Energy equation
"   N #
v   v ðm þ mt Þ vh 1 1 X vc
ruj h ¼ þ ðm þ mt Þ  hi i (5)
vxj vxj pr vxj Sc pr i ¼ 1 vxj

Turbulent viscosity mt is computed by combining k and ε as

follows:

k2
mt ¼ rCm (6)
ε
Besides, the heat conduction model of the cooling channel is:
!
v vT
l ¼ 0 (7)
vxj vxj

The following assumptions are made in this paper:

1) The main stream gas consists of the combustion products of RP-

1/oxygen, and the combustion process is completed instanta-
neously and sufficiently at the main stream inlet.
2) The radiation and gravity of the fluid are neglected.
3) The outside of the external wall is adiabatic.

Fig. 2. Schematic of the methodology procedure.

3. Computational-grid generation and boundary conditions

!     The computation is performed for an RP-1/LOx rocket, and both

0:026 m0:2 Cp pc 0:8 At 0:9
hc ¼ s (1) the liquid film coolant and the regenerative coolant are RP-1.
D0:2
t P D0:6 c* A Because the material of the internal wall is copper, the inner wall
0
temperature is required to be less than 1000 K in the cooling system
  design. The computational field and meshing of the liquid film/hot-
q ¼ hc Tst  Twg (2)
gas side are shown in Fig. 3. The main flow field is divided into six
Firstly, the coolant/cooling channel conjugate heat transfer areas: entrance and the first film inlet area, central area of the
calculation starts with the given input q of the hot-gas/inner wall combustion chamber, the second and the third film inlet area,
interface, by which the temperature of the hot-gas/inner wall throat convergent area, throat divergent area, and divergent area of
interface Twg can be found. Secondly, the film/hot-gas side flow and
heat transfer analysis can be performed with that Twg. Then, the
wall heat fluxes q will be found from that step of the calculation and
can be returned to the coolant/cooling channel conjugate heat
transfer analysis. These two steps carry on by turns until
½jq½i þ 1  q½ij=q½imax < 106 , in which, q[i þ 1] is the wall heat
flux calculated from the current step, q[i] means the wall heat flux
calculated from the last step, and the subscript max means the
maximum value of the whole calculation area. q and Twg are given
in three dimensional form as the boundary conditions. The itera-
tions between these steps, 3-D interpolation of q and Twg and giving
them as new boundary conditions in iterations, and thermale
physical parameters of RP-1 are based on C codes.
The time-averaged NaviereStokes equations for the compress-
ible steady 3-D flow can be written as follows:

1) Continuity equation

v  
ruj ¼ 0 ðj ¼ 1; 2; 3Þ (3)
vxj

2) Momentum equation

v   vP vs
rui uj ¼  þ ij ði; j ¼ 1; 2; 3Þ (4)
vxj vxi vxj
where stress tensor: sij ¼ ðm þ mt Þðvui =vxj þ vuj =vxi Þ  2=3ðm þ mt Þ

vuk =vxk dij , dij ¼ f 0ðjsiÞ

1ðj ¼ iÞ
. Fig. 3. Geometry and grids of the film/hot-gas calculation fields.
 W. Yang, B. Sun / Applied Thermal Engineering 54 (2013) 460e469
the nozzle. The grids are dense in the film inlet areas and the
boundary area. Besides, the grids of the inlet and the throat of the
thrust chamber are denser than that of the other areas. There are
eighteen layers of the boundary layer mesh to calculate the
boundary flow fields. Fig. 4 shows the geometry and the grids of the
coolant/cooling channel calculation fields. Half of the cooling
channel is chosen to simplify the calculation. As Fig. 4C shows, A is
the regenerative coolant, B is the internal wall of the cooling
channel, C is one part of the external wall which is adjacent to the
liquid coolant, and D is the other part of the external wall which is
adjacent to the solid channel. So only part A is liquid and the other
parts are solid; besides, the grids of A need boundary layers to
match the enhanced wall functions.
The combustor pressure of the rocket is 10 MPa, and the excess
oxidizer coefficient is 0.8. The whole propellant mass flow rate is
205 kg/s. There are three lines of the coolant ring with 400 holes
which are located Li away from the entrance of the combustor as
shown in Fig. 3. The dimensionless distances Xi ¼ Li  Lt/L of
the three cooling rings are, respectively, 0.6236, 0.1670,
and 0.1336. The length and the diameter of the holes are 10 mm
and 2 mm, respectively. The model of the thrust chamber and the
grids can be seen in Fig. 3. 1/400(0.9 ) of the entire model is adopted
to decrease the time of numerical calculation. The inlet temperature
and species mass fractions of the combustor are determined by
Fig. 4. Geometry and grids of the coolant/cooling channel calculation fields.
463
thermal calculation of the thrust chamber, and the inlet tempera-
ture is 3759.6 K for all these cases. The inlet temperature of the
liquid film is 300 K. To assure the film enters the combustor suc-
cessfully, the inlet pressure of the liquid film is 12 Mpa. The shape of
the film holes is round, and the axial angle of the jet holes is 45 .
The inlet temperature of the regenerative coolant is 300 K, and the
outlet pressure of it is 10 MPa. The width of the regenerative cooling
channel is fixed as a ¼ 1 mm in Fig. 3, and the width of the channel
wall t is variational. The height of the channel is h ¼ 2 mm, and the
thickness of the internal wall is e ¼ 1 mm.
Eight cases have been calculated in this paper in which the mass
fractions of the film and regenerative coolant are different. Case 1 is
with no liquid film cooling, Cases 2e4 have only one liquid film
cooling ring, and Cases 5e8 have two rings of liquid film cooling
inlet. The exact mass fraction distributions of them are shown in
Table 1.
4. Grid independent test and solver validation
Table 2 shows the different grid types used for different regions.
In the calculation, hexahedral/tetrahedral meshes are used in film/
hot-gas region, and hexahedral mesh is used in the chamber wall
and cooling coolant region. There is 3 < yþ < 10, so the near wall
mesh is valid for the enhanced wall functions. Fig. 5 demonstrates
464 W. Yang, B. Sun / Applied Thermal Engineering 54 (2013) 460e469

Table 1
Mass fraction of the film and regenerative coolant.

Case no. Total Film Film Film Regenerative

film (%) 1 (%) 2 (%) 3 (%) coolant (%)
1 0 0 0 0 14.54
2 10 10 0 0 14.54
3 10 10 0 0 17.45
4 7 7 0 0 17.45
5 10 6 4 0 14.54
6 10 4 6 0 14.54
7 10 6 0 4 14.54
8 10 4 0 6 14.54

that the solutions with base, fine, finer and the finest grids are close
to the others, and shows only minor differences between the re-
sults of the wall temperatures for these grid arrangements. The
differences between grid types 3 and 4 are less than those between
grid types 1 and 2 or 2 and 4, but the biggest difference is less than
1.93%. To get better results and save the calculation time, grid type 3
has been chosen. The performed grid verification demonstrates
that the fine mesh distribution is suitable to accurately describe the
flow and heat transfer of the liquid film and regenerative cooled
thrust chamber.
Validation of the solution method is performed using the
experimental study of S. Ueda, Y. Kuroda et al. They used a 2000N
thrust engine having nitrogen tetroxide (NTO) as oxygenant and
80% hydrazine-20% monomethyl hydrazine (MMH) as fuel in their
experiments, and the internal coolant channel is made of stainless
steel (304 CRES). The liquid film and regenerative cooling cases in
Ref. [23] are calculated by the method developed in this paper. The
calculation conditions are just as Table 3 shows and the corre-
sponding three-dimensional model and meshing are shown in
Fig. 6.
Fig. 7 shows the wall temperature of the different methods, in
which Tw_cool means the coolant side wall temperature of the
coolant channel and Tw_gas means the gas side wall temperature of
the coolant channel. The lowest value of both Tw_cool and Tw_gas is at
the combustor inlet because it is also the film coolant inlet area, and
the highest value of them is at the throat for the highest heat flux
here. Also, the inner wall temperature is higher than the outside
wall temperature apparently. As shown, the results are consistent
with each other, and the discrepancy between them is below 6.9%;
which proves the accuracy of this method.
Fig. 5. Wall temperatures for the various grid arrangements. Geometry and grids of
the calculation fields of the cases in Ref. [23].
5. Results and discussion
5.1. The temperature and the pressure of the film/hot-gas region
Fig. 8 shows the static pressure and static temperature of the
film/hot-gas flow field when both liquid film cooling and regen-
erative cooling are used for the combustor. In all the cases, the static
pressure reduces from the throat convergent area to the end of the
nozzle. The greatest value of the static pressure is at the inlets of the
films and the pressure of the combustor is high. The existence of the
liquid film makes a cold border area near the wall over the whole
calculation field. Because of the heat transferred by the regenera-
tive coolant, the inner wall temperature is much lower than the
temperature inside the combustor, which is shown in blue (in the
web version) in Fig. 8. Compared to the static temperature distri-
bution of Case 1, there are border areas in the temperature distri-
bution of the other cases, apparently. This is because there is only
regenerative cooling in Case 1, but both liquid film cooling and
regenerative cooling in the other cases. Due to the large velocity of
the main gas, the liquid film sticks to the wall when it enters into

Table 2
Various grid arrangements considered.

Grid type no. Region Area 1 I  J  K Area 2 I  J  K Area 3 I  J  K Area 4 I  J  K Area 5 I  J  K Area 6 I  J  K
1 Film-hot gas 15  42  8 40  42  8 25  42  8 35  42  8 25  42  8 45  42  8
Cooling channel-A 15  40  24 40  40  24 25  40  24 35  40  24 25  40  24 45  40  24
Cooling channel-B 10  20  20 30  20  20 18  20  20 25  20  20 18  20  20 38  20  20
Cooling channel-C 10  10  10 30  10  10 18  10  10 25  10  10 18  10  10 38  10  10
Cooling channel-D 10  10  10 30  10  10 18  10  10 25  10  10 18  10  10 38  10  10
2 Film-hot gas 22  42  16 60  42  16 37  42  16 52  42  16 37  42  16 67  42  16
Cooling channel-A 22  40  36 60  40  36 37  40  36 52  40  36 37  40  36 67  40  36
Cooling channel-B 15  20  20 45  20  20 27  20  20 37  20  20 27  20  20 57  20  20
Cooling channel-C 15  10  10 45  10  10 27  10  10 37  10  10 27  10  10 57  10  10
Cooling channel-D 15  10  10 45  10  10 27  10  10 37  10  10 27  10  10 57  10  10
3 Film-hot gas 30  42  16 80  42  16 50  42  16 70  42  16 50  42  16 90  42  16
Cooling channel-A 30  40  36 80  40  36 50  40  36 70  40  36 50  40  36 90  40  36
Cooling channel-B 20  20  20 60  20  20 36  20  20 50  20  20 36  20  20 76  20  20
Cooling channel-C 20  10  10 60  10  10 36  10  10 50  10  10 36  10  10 76  10  10
Cooling channel-D 20  10  10 60  10  10 36  10  10 50  10  10 36  10  10 76  10  10
4 Film-hot gas 30  84  16 80  84  16 50  84  16 70  84  16 50  84  16 90  84  16
Cooling channel-A 30  60  36 80  60  36 50  60  36 70  60  36 50  60  36 90  60  36
Cooling channel-B 20  30  30 60  30  30 36  30  30 50  30  30 36  30  30 76  30  30
Cooling channel-C 20  15  15 60  15  15 36  15  15 50  15  15 36  15  15 76  15  15
Cooling channel-D 20  15  15 60  15  15 36  15  15 50  15  15 36  15  15 76  15  15
 W. Yang, B. Sun / Applied Thermal Engineering 54 (2013) 460e469 465

Table 3
Calculation conditions in Ref. [23].

Chamber pressure 0.73 MPa

Combustor diameter 70.0 mm
Throat diameter 37.6 mm
Film cooling ratio, % of fuel 15
Number of film cooling orifices 26
Film cooling orifice diameter 0.26 mm
Film coolant inlet temperature 293 K
Nominal mixture ratio 1.65
Number of the channel 45
Pressure at the channel exit 1.0 MPa
Regeneration coolant inlet temperature 293 K
a 1.52e2.65 mm
h 0.5 mm
e 2.5 mm

the combustor and a cold border area is formed just near the
chamber wall. Due to the diffusion and the absorption from the
main hot gas, the cold border area becomes larger and its tem-
perature increases along the wall. Furthermore, the inner wall
temperature of the cases with two film rings is lower than that of
Fig. 7. Comparison of results in Reference [24] and in this paper. Wall temperatures for
the case with only one film ring after the throat. the various grid arrangements.

5.2. The temperature and the pressure of the coolant/cooling
channel region
Fig. 9 shows the static pressure and static temperature distri-
bution of the coolant when both liquid film cooling and regenera-
tive cooling are used for the combustor in Case 7. The static
pressure reduces from the inlet to the outlet of the channel. The
pressure drop characteristic of the coolant is corresponding to that
of the typical regenerative cooling system [24], which is reducing
along the cooling channel. The pressure drop of all the cases is no
more than 0.9 MPa. The temperature of the coolant is rising along
the cooling channel because of the heat flux transferred from the
inner wall. The temperature near the inner wall is higher than the
temperature away from it at any axial location, so the temperature
at the outlet of the cooling channel near the inner wall is the
highest, and the temperature at the inlet of the cooling channel
away from the inner wall is the lowest, which can be seen clearly in
the temperature distributions of all the cases. The highest tem-
perature for Case 1 is more than 1900 K, for Case 2e4 no more than
900 K and for Case 5e8 no more than 800 K. Case 1 has the greatest
pressure drop because its temperature rise is the biggest and all of
the cases have the same outlet pressure which is settled 10 MPa.
Also, Cases 2e4 have greater pressure drops because the temper-
ature rise of them is more than those of Cases 5e8.
Fig. 10 shows the temperature distributions at the up wall and
the down wall of the coolant channel for cases with or without
liquid film cooling. Fig. 10A shows the temperature next to the in-
ternal wall-the down wall, and Fig. 10B shows the temperature next
to the external wall-the up wall. Clearly, the temperature next to
the external wall is much lower than the temperature next to the
internal wall at the same axial location, which is because the
regenerative coolant takes all the heat transferred from the internal
wall. The coolant temperature increases more rapidly in Case 1 than
in the other cases, because there is the liquid film cooling and
regenerative cooling in the other cases, and the film coolant takes
much heat, so the heat flux transferred from the inner wall to the
regenerative coolant is smaller. The regenerative coolant temper-
ature gradually increases from the inlet to the outlet of the coolant
channel, and it increases sooner at the throat because the heat flux
is larger here. The biggest temperature rise in Case 1 is more than
1200 K, but the biggest temperature rise in Cases 2e8 is only no
more than 300 K. Actually, the wall temperature of the cooling
channel is higher when the inner wall temperature is higher
because the heat transferred from the hot-gas to the regenerative
coolant is greater.
Generally speaking, liquid film cooling and regenerative cooling
have a good effect on cooling the thruster chamber. The cooling
effect is better when both of the cooling methods are used. Liquid

Fig. 6. Geometry and grids of the calculation fields of the cases in reference [24]. Comparison of results in Ref. [23] and in this paper.
466 W. Yang, B. Sun / Applied Thermal Engineering 54 (2013) 460e469
Fig. 8. Results of the film/hot-gas.
film cooling reduces the inner wall temperature significantly and
decreases the heat flux transferred from the hot-gas to the chamber
wall.
5.3. The inner wall temperature distributions
The distributions of the inner wall temperature are shown in
Fig. 11. Fig. 11A shows the difference between the cases without the
liquid film cooling and with one ring of the liquid film cooling.
When the liquid film cooling is adopted, the temperature of the
inner wall is much lower than that of the case with only the
regenerative cooling. When the percentage of the regenerative
coolant is bigger, the inner wall temperature is lower because the
regenerative coolant takes more heat from the inner wall and this
part of heat transfer is great. However, a little increase in the mass
flow rate of the cooling film will not cause too much decrease in the
inner wall temperature when there is regenerative cooling, which
can be seen by the inner wall temperature distribution of Case 3
and Case 4.
In Fig. 11B, Case 1 is with only the regenerative cooling, Case 2 is
with one ring of the liquid film cooling and the regenerative cooling
and Case 5 is with two rings of the liquid film cooling and the
regenerative cooling e besides, the mass flow rates of the regen-
erative coolant are the same in these three cases. The inner wall
temperature of Case 1 is the highest, that of Case 2 is lower, and that
of Case 5 is the lowest at any axial location of the thruster chamber.
The liquid film can cool the whole thruster chamber effectively by
absorbing the heat transferred from the hot-gas. Furthermore,
separating the film coolant into two parts and sending them to the
Fig. 9. Results of the coolant in Case 07.
chamber from different coolant rings can decrease the inner wall
temperature effectively.
In Fig. 11C, these cases are with two rings of the liquid film
cooling and the regenerative cooling, but the second film coolant
ring is at a different axial location, that is different from the situ-
ations in former researches. If the cases have the same mass flow
rate of the regenerative coolant and the whole mass flow rate of the
film coolant, the inner wall temperature is much lower when the
second coolant ring is at Film 2. Furthermore, if the mass flow rate
of the first coolant ring is greater, the inner wall temperature is
lower before the second coolant ring. However, the inner wall
temperature after the second coolant ring especially after the
throat is almost the same.
When there is only regenerative cooling, the inner wall tem-
perature is very high at the whole thruster chamber especially at
the throat, which is more than 1200 K e higher than the fusion
temperature of copper. The temperature decreases gradually after
the throat in cases with and without liquid film cooling. When
there is both liquid film cooling and regenerative cooling, the inner
wall temperature is much lower and it changes gently before the
throat. The most important reason for choosing the liquid film
cooling is that it can decrease the throat temperature to an available
value which is below 800 K.
5.4. The wall flux distributions
The distributions of the wall flux in the thrust chamber are
demonstrated in Fig. 12. Fig. 12A shows the difference between the
cases without the liquid film cooling and with one ring of the liquid
 W. Yang, B. Sun / Applied Thermal Engineering 54 (2013) 460e469 467

Fig. 10. Wall temperature distributions of the cooling channel.

film cooling. It can be found that the heat flux at the throat is the
highest in all the cases. When the liquid film cooling is adopted, the
wall heat flux is much lower than that of the case with the
regenerative cooling only, especially at the throat region. If the
percentage of the regenerative coolant is bigger, the wall heat flux
is higher, so the heat taken by the regenerative coolant is greater.
However, by comparison of the results of Case 3 and Case 4, a little
increase in the mass flow rate of the cooling film will not cause too
much decrease in the wall heat flux when there is the regenerative
cooling, because the regenerative coolant takes more heat.
In Fig. 12B, the wall heat flux of Case 1 is the highest, that of Case
2 is lower, and that of Case 5 is the lowest at any axial location of the
thruster chamber. Because they have the same mass flow rate of
regenerative coolant, Case 1 has the biggest temperature rise of the
coolant. Besides, separating the film coolant into two parts and
sending them to the chamber from different coolant rings can

Fig. 11. Inner wall temperature distributions for different cases.

468 W. Yang, B. Sun / Applied Thermal Engineering 54 (2013) 460e469
Fig. 12. Wall flux distributions for different cases.
decrease the wall flux e especially the throat heat flux, which is
very important to the thruster chamber.
In Fig. 12C, these cases are with two rings of the liquid film
cooling and the regenerative cooling, but the second coolant ring is
at a different axial location. With the same mass flow rate of the
regenerative coolant and the whole mass flow rate of the film
coolant, the wall flux is much lower when the second coolant ring is
at Film 2, which interprets the temperature distribution in Fig. 11C.
Also, when the mass flow rate of the first coolant ring is greater, the
wall heat flux is greater before the second coolant ring, but the wall
flux after the second coolant ring, especially after the throat, is
almost the same.
6. Conclusion
Liquid film and regenerative cooling in a thrust chamber has
been simulated numerically. The coupled heat transfers between
the hot-gas, film, coolant channel and regenerative coolant are
considered. The calculation is separated into two parts: regenera-
tive cooling coupled flow and film/hot-gas heat transfer analysis.
The time-averaged NaviereStokes equations for the compressible
steady 3-D flow have been solved with the k  ε model and
enhanced wall functions for a RP-1/LOx rocket. The results show the
following conclusions for RP-1 liquid film cooling:
1) The coupled heat transfer in a liquid film and regenerative
cooling thrust chamber can be solved effectively by the method
adopted in this paper even though the structure of the cooling
channels are very complicated. Besides, the temperature and
the pressure of the thrust chamber and the inner wall heat flux
can be calculated effectively.
2) The liquid film cooling decreases the temperature of the inner
wall and the heat flux transferred from the hot-gas to the
regenerative coolant effectively, especially that of the throat.
The liquid film forms a cold border area along the whole thrust
chamber.
3) The cooling effect of two rings of film coolant is better than that
of one ring of film coolant, even though the whole mass flow
rate of the film coolant is the same. Additionally, the locations
of the two rings and the assignment of the mass flow rate at
these two locations are important for a thrust chamber.
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