Large-Eddy Simulation of Film Cooling Through a 2D Slot

Conventional size rocket thrust chambers require internal film cooling in addition to backside cooling. The film layer injected through a slot or a set of discrete holes produces a complex mixing pattern featuring a wall jet flow geometry and a cooling performance that is strongly affected by turbulence levels at the slot exit and in the combustion gases. Previous numerical simulations of such flows revealed modeling issues associated with mixing and gas-wall interactions. In particular, gas phase and solid wall temperature variations are difficult to calculate within acceptable accuracy. In this study a high-order fully compressible large eddy simulation (LES) solver is used to model a wall-jet film cooling configuration under adiabatic wall conditions. The solver uses a 6th order finite-difference discretization, a 3rd order Runge-Kutta explicit time integration, a characteristic-based boundary treatment, and a parallel computing capability. Numerical results are compared to experimental data obtained in the University of Maryland film cooling test facility.