Improvement of Water-Cooling Performance for Combustion Chamber Through Optimization of Flow Channel Structure.

Abstract

A complex operating environment poses significant challenges to the design of ramjet combustion chambers as high-enthalpy wind tunnels and their associated high-temperature, high-pressure combustion chambers continue to advance. This study developed a thermal-fluid-structure coupling finite element (FE) model based on the computational fluid dynamics (CFD) numerical simulation method to simulate the service conditions of combustion chambers under varying structures. Subsequently, FE simulation results were used to study the influences of combustion chamber structure on fluid flow characteristics, variation in cooling water pressure, temperature and stress of a combustion chamber wall. The results showed that after cooling water entered the chamber as a stable jet, it impacted the wall surface and formed a bidirectional vortex flow, which then entered the cooling water channels. Modifying the slope of a cooling water channel can effectively reduce pressure within the combustion chamber. It is noteworthy that the inlet equivalent stress of a combustion chamber decreases with an increasing slope, whereas outlet equivalent stress increases correspondingly. Finally, through comprehensive analysis, the optimal slope of a cooling water channel was determined to be 0.3°. This work provides essential theoretical insights for optimizing the design of combustion chambers.