Optical Analysis of the Hydrogen Cooling Film in High Pressure Combustion Chambers

Sammanfattning: For performance optimisation of modern liquid cryogenic bipropellant rocket combustion chambers, one component which plays an important role in reducing the wall side heat flux, is the behaviour of the cooling film. At the Institute of Space Propulsion of the German Aerospace Center (DLR) in Lampoldshausen, hot test runs have been performed using the experimental combustion chamber BKM, to investigate the wall side heat flux which is -- among other factors -- dependent on cooling film properties. To gain more insight into the film behaviour under real rocket-like conditions, optical diagnostics have been applied. The chosen methods were shadowgraphy and OH' imaging producing optical data sets which are analysed in this study. In this context, a description of the necessary background information is given, concerning rocket combustion chambers, film cooling and optical diagnostics of O2/H2 combustion. The applied methodology for optical analysis is described, followed by a presentation of the results. During the test campaign, it became clear that the optical setup was not optimised for creating meaningful shadowgraphy recordings which is why the shadowgraphy data has to be treated as flame emission imaging. The behaviour of the gas layer adjacent to the chamber wall could be characterised based on qualitative (luminosity, LOx shadow, reflection, recirculation zone and flame shape) and quantitative (layer thickness, layer length, pressure conditions) analysis. The thickness could be identified for each load step and an average length of the layer was found as well. OH' imaging has been used supplementary to support the observations from the flame emission images. An in depth frame by frame analysis was not possible due to time constraints. However, the time averaged images yielded results in accordance to the flame emission and could give a relative figure for the temperature distribution in the combustion volume. An artefact in the data was found, stemming presumably from the image intensifier. This artefact needs to be researched for a future error reduction in the data of this and other campaigns. Additionally, the thickness of the layer suggested a correlation to the models for film cooling efficiency. Such a correlation could not be established. Nevertheless, the film cooling models show the same behaviour as the data obtained from the flame emission imaging. Finally, suggestions are given how the data analysis and the optical setup could be improved for future, similar campaigns.