Project Title:

Virtual Design Tools for Thermo-Fluid Analysis of Liquid Rocket Engine Thrust Chambers

92-1-11.02-6576                                                   NAS08-39812
Virtual Design Tools for Thermo-Fluid Analysis of
     Liquid Rocket Engine Thrust Chambers
CFD Research Corporation
3325-D Triana Boulevard
Huntsville, AL  35805
Yong Lai                                             (205-536-6576)

Abstract:

     Modern thermo-fluid design methodology of rocket engines
involves several computational components including CAD/CAM, CFD,
thermal-analysis, structural analysis, and data visualization
tools. These components are strongly interlinked through boundary
conditions, grids, and property data. Nevertheless, engineers find
that they use the components in a stand-alone form or by manual
interfacing via external files. A novel, virtual design tool
linking the codes with object oriented programming will be
developed to allow individual codes to evolve without affecting
their interaction. The key components, the CFD REFLEQS code and
thermal SINDA code, will be coupled, thereby allowing their
simultaneous execution. An innovative, multi-domain, multi-media
capability will be implemented in the REFLEQS code. One-to-one,
one-to-many, and arbitrary match grid among different domains will
allow different grid topologies in different domains so that
structural, thermal, and CFD codes (e.g. ANSYS, SINDA, and
REFLEQS) can interchange data. In Phase I, the design tool will be
verified on a 40 K engine and demonstrated on the STME
configuration. In Phase II, the code will be extended to allow
simultaneous analysis of two-dimensional and/or three-dimensional
configurations by using an advanced distributed-shared memory
approach.

Potential Commercial Application:

Potential Commercial Applications:  This approach will find
extensive use in the prediction of thermo-fluid phenomena in
liquid rocket engines, in automotive engine cooling, and in heat
exchanger design.

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