Experimental Investigation of Transient Forced Convection of Liquid Methane in a Channel at High Heat Flux Conditions

Abstract

Transient heat transfer of liquid methane under forced convection in a 1.8 mm × 1.8 mm asymmetrically heated square channel was investigated. This study is aimed at understanding the heat transfer behavior of cryogenic propellant in cooling channels of a regeneratively cooled rocket engine at the start-up condition. To simulate high heat load conditions representative of regeneratively cooled rocket engines, a high heat flux test facility with cryogenic liquid handing capabilities was developed at the Center for Space Exploration Technology Research. The time history of inlet and outlet fluid temperatures and test section channel wall temperatures were measured at high heat flux conditions (from 1.19 to 3.80 MW/m²) and a Reynolds number (Re) range of 1.88 × 10⁵ to 3.45 × 10⁵. The measured wall temperature data point toward possible film boiling within the test section during certain tests, particularly with higher heat fluxes and lower Reynolds number conditions that resulted in higher wall temperatures. The transient average Nusselt numbers (Nu_L) of the channel obtained from the experimental measurements are lower than those calculated from the Sieder–Tate correlation (Nu_O); however, the ratio (Nu_L/Nu_O) increases with the increase in Reynolds number. The ratio is around 0.25 at the lower end of Re and then increases to 0.7 at the maximum Re studied in the present investigation.

Keywords::

• heat transfer
• cooling channel
• transient flow
• liquid methane
• high heat flux
• Nusselt number correlation

Acknowledgments

The authors gratefully acknowledge the technical guidance and contribution of Dr. J. C. Melcher of the NASA Johnson Space Center. The authors also thank Mr. Nathanial Robinson of the Center for Space Exploration Technology Research (cSETR) for assisting with experimental safety, logistics, and preparation of the manuscript and acknowledge the contributions of cSETR research assistants Manuel Galvan and Abraham Trujillo in performing heat transfer experiments.

FUNDING

This material is based upon work supported by NASA under award NNX09AV09A.