Numerical simulation of combustion stability of liquid rocket engine based on chemistry dynamics

Combustion instability of O2/kerosene, O2/kerosene/hydrogen, and O2/kerosene/hydrogen spray flame is numerically studied. The numerical results of combustion self-oscillation are consistent with the historical experiments. Hydrogen is helpful to stabilizing oxygen/hydrocarbon combustion. High gas injecting velocity of the coaxial injector would increase the combustion stability. Contrary to the former expectation, the most sensitive region for combustion instability is not where the heat releases most intensely but is the low-temperature premixed region near the injectors. According to the simulation, the technology steps, such as adding catalyzer to decrease the reaction activity energy, or improving the injector design to reduce the premixed low temperature region, would improve the combustion stability.