ALE-based FSI Simulation of Solid Propellant Rocket Interior

Abstract

As a hybrid model of continuum motion description which combines the advantages of classical kinematical descriptions, i.e. Lagrangian and Eulerian description, the ALE (Arbitrary Lagrangian Eulerian) description is adopted for the simulation of a fluid-structure interaction of solid propellant rocket interior. The fluid-structure interaction process, combustion modeling, regression model and an automatic re-meshing algorithm are included to analyze an unsteady fluid-structure-combustion interaction phenomenon with the deformation of solid domain during the burning process. The developed solver is then applied for the ignition simulation of a solid propellant grain, which is a highly unsteady coupled phenomenon between gas flow and propellant structure. The computed results show complex flow physics in the combustion chamber and the behavior of a solid propellant deformation.