Development of a Three-dimensional Transient Wall Heat Transfer Model of a Rotating Detonation Combustor

Summary:

Numerical simulation of transient heat transfer characteristics of a Rotating Detonation Combustor (RDC) is presented in this paper. A three-dimensional transient conduction model was developed to study the effect of large variation, periodic gas temperature exposed to the inner walls of the rotating detonation combustor outer body. The objective of the simulation is to predict heat flux transients and the interior wall surface temperatures from start up to 10s operation. The time varying, three-dimensional periodic convective boundary condition used for the heat transfer simulation is representative of the detonation wave propagation and other physical characteristics of RDC operating around 3000Hz and is derived from a separate computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation. The complex flow distribution downstream of the detonation/fill region results in a wall temperature and fluid dynamics that varies temporally and spatially in all directions. Simulation results were compared with experimental temperature data from literature on the outer body of an uncooled RDC. Combustor wall temperature variation in the axial direction indicates effect of non-uniformity on gas temperature distribution in the combustor for a non-premixed geometry. The simulation provides an estimate of transient heat load and hot spot locations that are critical to design efficient combustor cooling strategies.

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Reference Animations:

1 Arnab Roy, Research Engineer II, AECOM, AIAA Member, arnab.roy@netl.doe.gov

2 Clinton Bedick, Research Engineer, West Virginia University Research Corporation, clinton.bedick@netl.doe.gov

3 Peter Strakey, Senior Research Engineer, AIAA Member, peter.strakey@netl.doe.gov

4 Todd Sidwell, Research Mechanical Engineer, AIAA Member, todd.sidwell@netl.doe.gov

5 Don Ferguson, Senior Research Engineer, AIAA Member, donald.ferguson@netl.doe.gov

6 Andrew Sisler, Graduate Student, West Virginia University, AIAA Member, andrew.sisler@netl.doe.gov

7 Andrew Nix, Assistant Professor, West Virginia University, AIAA Member, andrew.nix@mail.wvu.edu