Numerical Investigation on Supercritical Heat Transfer of RP3 Kerosene Flowing inside a Cooling Channel of Scramjet

Supercritical convective heat transfer characteristics of hydrocarbon fuel play a fundamental role in the active cooling technology of scramjet. In this paper, a 2D-axisymmetric numerical study of supercritical heat transfer of RP3 flowing inside the cooling channels of scramjet has been conducted. The main thermophysical properties of RP3, including density, specific heat, and thermal conductivity, are obtained from experimental data, while viscosity is evaluated from a commercial code with a ten-species surrogate. Effects of heat flux, mass flow rate, and inlet temperature on supercritical heat transfer processes have been investigated. Results indicate that when the wall temperature rises above the pseudocritical temperature of RP3, heat transfer coefficient decreases as a result of drastic decrease of the specific heat. The conventional heat transfer correlations, that is, Gnielinski formula, are no longer proper for the supercritical heat transfer of RP3. The modified Jackson and Hall formula, which was proposed for supercritical CO2 and water, gives good prediction except when the wall temperature is near or higher than the pseudocritical temperature.