Numerical analysis of regenerative cooling in liquid propellant rocket engines

High combustion temperatures and long operation durations require the use of cooling techniques in liquid propellant rocket engines (LPRE). For high-pressure and high-thrust rocket engines, regenerative cooling is the most preferred cooling method. Traditionally, approximately square cross sectional cooling channels have been used. However, recent studies have shown that by increasing the coolant channel height-to-width aspect ratio and changing the cross sectional area in non-critical regions for heat flux, the rocket combustion chamber gas-side wall temperature can be reduced significantly without an increase in the coolant pressure drop. In this study, the regenerative cooling of a liquid propellant rocket engine has been numerically simulated. The engine has been modeled to operate on a LOX/kerosene mixture at a chamber pressure of 60 bar with 300 kN thrust and kerosene is considered as the coolant. A numerical investigation was performed to determine the effect of different aspect ratio and number of cooling channels on gas-side wall and coolant temperatures and pressure drop in cooling channels.