Plume simulation of liquid apogee engine for GEO satellite using parallel DSMC method

• DOI: 10.1016/j.compfluid.2020.104612
• Publication Date: 2020-06-08T15:24:30Z
• Authors: Kyun Ho Lee
• Keywords: Arcjet rocket; Liquid-propellant rocket; Rocket (weapon); Rocket engine

Abstract For satellite design engineers, an exhaust plume from a liquid rocket engine has been classified as a potential source of local heat load and surface contamination on payload sensors or equipment because several kinds of chemical species at relatively high temperatures can severely impact on the performance of optically-sensitive components. Hence, an accurate prediction of plume influence on a given satellite configuration is an essential task for the satellite development process. In this sense, the objective of the present study was to focus on a numerical investigation of the detailed plume behavior of a liquid apogee engine (LAE) and its influence on a geostationary orbit (GEO) satellite. To deal with different continuum and rarefied flow regimes for the inside and outside of an engine nozzle during LAE operation, a combined approach of computational fluid dynamics (CFD) and parallelized Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) was used to simulate the plume flow efficiently. Using the simulation results of the present study, the detailed plume behavior of the LAE and its influence were evaluated and analyzed on a three-dimensional satellite configuration during the early orbit raising phase condition.