Liquid Propulsion Modeling and Fluid Flow Design
The NASA standard tool for heat transfer and fluid flow analysis, SINDA/FLUINT, includes thermodynamic and hydrodynamic solutions specifically targeted at the growing demand for design and analysis of liquid propulsion systems.
Many organizations have previously used separate in-house tools specialized for each of the above applications. However, these organizations typically do not have the resources nor infrastructure to maintain these codes when cognizant engineers are lost, nor to modify and validate them for new vehicles or applications, nor to train new engineers on their use. The use of a single general-purpose tool to encompass all such analyses offers not only solutions to these problems, but also enables integrated analyses and the ability to communicate with vendors and customers.
An extensive set of generalized thermal/fluid modeling tools exists that was developed to satisfy the specialized needs of liquid propulsion system design and analysis. These tools can uniquely provide integrated modeling of an entire fuel tank system including pressurization system, feedline, and turbopump. They can also link intimately with thermal models of the structure and environment. Included are high-level design synthesis, statistical design, and model correlation modules. An extensive infrastructure exists of pre- and postprocessing software, training, and user support. While the models made using these tools might be proprietary, the tools themselves are readily available to all organizations, overcoming significant limitations of in-house codes.
Propulsion Design Applications
-
Helium pressurization system design
-
Regenerative nozzle cooling
-
Cryogenic turbomachinery chilldown transients
-
Hydrazine line filling (priming) and valve transients
-
Feed-line transients, including anti-geyser design
-
Cryogenic tank pressurization and discharge, including thermal stratification, dissolved pressurant, and capillary liquid acquisition devices
More Information
- Propulsion Applications of the NASA Standard General Purpose Thermohydraulic Analyzer (paper written for the AIAA Thermophysics Conference, June 2000)
- Validation Case: Line Chilldown Using Liquid Hydrogen
- Thermal Stratification of Cryogenic Tank sample problem
- Long-term Cryogenic Liquid Storage (TVS System)
- Vehicle-level Modeling
For further information, please contact CRTech