Factors Affecting Characteristic Length of the Combustion Chamber of Liquid Propellant Rocket Engines

Abstract

Optimum characteristic length of the combustion chamber of liquid rocket engine is very important to get higher energy from the liquid propellants. Characteristic length is defined by the time required for complete burning of fuel. Combustion reactions are very fast and combustion is evaporation dependent. This paper proposes fuel droplet evaporation model for liquid propellant rocket engine and discusses the factors which can affect the required size of characteristic length of the combustion chamber based on proposed model. The analysis is performed for low temperature combustion chamber. A computer code based on proposed model is generated, which solve analytical equations to calculate combustion chamber characteristic length under various input conditions. The analysis shows that characteristic length is affected by combustion chamber temperature, pressure, fuel droplet diameter, chamber diameter, mass flow rate of propellants and relative velocity of the droplet in the combustion chamber.