Thermal-structural analysis of regeneratively-cooled thrust chamber wall in reusable LOX/Methane rocket engines

To predict the thermal and structural responses of the thrust chamber wall under cyclic work, a 3-D fluid-structural coupling computational methodology is developed. The thermal and mechanical loads are determined by a validated 3-D finite volume fluid-thermal coupling computational method. With the specified loads, the nonlinear thermal-structural finite element analysis is applied to obtaining the 3-D thermal and structural responses. The Chaboche nonlinear kinematic hardening model calibrated by experimental data is adopted to predict the cyclic plastic behavior of the inner wall. The methodology is further applied to the thrust chamber of LOX/Methane rocket engines. The results show that both the maximum temperature at hot run phase and the maximum circumferential residual strain of the inner wall appear at the convergent part of the chamber. Structural analysis for multiple work cycles reveals that the failure of the inner wall may be controlled by the low-cycle fatigue when the Chaboche model parameter γ3 = 0, and the damage caused by the thermal-mechanical ratcheting of the inner wall cannot be ignored when γ3 > 0. The results of sensitivity analysis indicate that mechanical loads have a strong influence on the strains in the inner wall.