Access to space requires rockets. Although different types of rockets are developed and produced to date, bipropellant liquid rocket engines are the most prominent ones. In these engines, both fuel and oxidizer are mixed in the combustion chamber. As a result of a violent chemical reaction, a high level of heat energy is emerged together with product gases. Using a converging-diverging nozzle, heat energy of the gases is converted to kinetic energy. Performance of the rocket engines is mainly dependent on the combustion chamber temperature, pressure, and thermodynamic properties of the gas products. To calculate these values, we need to solve complicated chemical reactions using mass and energy balance. Most of the fuel studies are intensified on either Hydrogen or methane. In this paper, we study ethane which is the second main component of the natural gas. Cantera is used as chemical reaction solver. Then applying thermodynamic properties of the gas products, rocket engine performance values are calculated in terms of equivalence ratios. Rocket engine performance results show that ethane is a suitable fuel for bipropellant liquid rocket engines.

bipropellant liquid rocket engines, combustion chamber temperature.

Received: August 18, 2021; Accepted: September 24, 2021; Published: December 8, 2021

How to cite this article: Nevsan Sengil, Theoretical investigation of rocket engines for oxygen and ethane liquid bipropellant, JP Journal of Heat and Mass Transfer 24(2) (2021), 309-320. DOI: 10.17654/0973576321006

This Open Access Article is Licensed under Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

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