High Temperature Material Processes 22(2–3):141–159 (2018)

COMPUTATIONAL STUDY OF HEAT

TRANSFER CHARACTERISTICS
OF SUPERCRITICAL METHANE FLOW
IN THE COOLANT CHANNEL
OF A ROCKET ENGINE

Mathew Saxon Arakkaparambil,1,* Pradeep Kumar,2

& Aravind Vaidyanathan2
1
Liquid Propulsion Systems Center, Indian Space Research Organisation,
Trivandrum 695547, Kerala, India
2
Department of Aerospace Engineering, Indian Institute of Space Science
and Technology, Valiamal Road, Valiamala, Thiruvananthpuram, Kerala,
695547, India

*Address all correspondence to: Matthew Saxon Arakkaparambil, Liquid

Propulsion Systems Center, Indian Space Research Organisation, Trivandrum
695547, Kerala, India, E-mail: mathewsaxon@gmail.com

Liquid methane as a rocket fuel has promising prospects for deep space travel in the near future
owing to its possible availability in alien planets. The major challenge however appears to be
to properly address the issue of unusual heat transfer characteristics observed in the coolant
channel at supercritical pressures, typically when the coolant fluid temperatures exceed a criti-
cal value. The current work systematically looks at the applicability of typical one-dimensional
model to predict the heat transfer behavior in the coolant channel. The study then extends to
a 2D numerical analysis and parametric investigation with an objective to study the effect of
heat flux on heat transfer at a supercritical pressure. A 2D numerical analysis indicates that
the one-dimensional approach is having limited applicability for heat transfer at a supercritical
pressure. A systematic study has been carried out in the current work to investigate the on-
set of heat transfer deterioration in rocket engine coolant channels which involves asymmetric
heating. The study indicates that heat transfer deterioration can be expected as the heat flux is
increased and interestingly localized flow acceleration owing to sharp fall in density appears to
have a prime influence on the heat transfer deterioration. An attempt has been made to look at
some possible methods to offset the heat transfer deterioration, and the study reveals that pro-
viding higher surface roughness could be a simple possible means to overcome the heat transfer
deterioration.

KEY WORDS: methane, rocket engine coolant channel, regenerative cooling, supercriti-
cal, heat transfer deterioration, local flow acceleration, asymmetric heating

1093-3611/18/$35.00 © 2018 by Begell House, Inc. www.begellhouse.com 141

142 Arakkaparambil, Kumar, & Vaidyanathan

Nomenclature
2
A surface area, m Re Reynolds number
Cp specific heat, J/(kg∙K) T temperature, K
cw width of the channel, m Tpc pseudocritical temperature, K
G mass flux, kg/(m2∙s) U velocity, m/s
2 +
g acceleration due to gravity, m/s y nondimensional wall distance
H channel height, m
h heat transfer coefficient, W/(m2∙K) Greek Symbols
k turbulent kinetic energy, m2/s2 ηfin fin efficiency
L length of the channel, m λ thermal conductivity, W/m∙K
ṁ mass flow rate, kg/s μ viscosity, kg/(m∙s)
Nu Nusselt number νt eddy viscosity, m2/s
P perimeter, m ρ density, kg/m3
p pressure, N/m2
Pk turbulent production, W/m3 Subscripts
Pr Prandtl number b bulk
Q heat flow rate, W e exit
qʺ heat flux, W/m2 i, j indices for tensor
R thermal resistance, K/W in inlet
rh height of the channel rib, m w wall
Rfin thermal resistance of fin, K/W wi inner wall

1. INTRODUCTION

The interest in the studies related to heat transfer at a supercritical pressure can be found
since 1950s (Smith, 1953), but in recent times the wide research in this field appears to be
driven mainly by the nuclear and space propulsion industrial sectors. In the near future, nu-
clear power plants would be using supercritical water to harvest higher thermal efficiency
with simplified systems due to the elimination of steam dryers, steam separators, etc. (Oka
et al., 1992). Much of the simplification results from the elimination of a longer two-phase
system when the fluid is operated above its critical pressure. The situation inside a typical
rocket engine thrust chamber is quite extreme, as the inside hot gas temperatures of the
order of 3600 K, heat fluxes up to 160 MW/m2, and pressure of 60 bar or more (Quent-
meyer, 1977) are common in rocket engines. An efficient cooling system is very essential
for rocket engines to keep the chamber wall temperature within the safe limits. A usual
method is to employ a regenerative cooling system in which the fuel is passed through
channels which are part of the inner wall and are also enclosed by an outer wall, thereby
creating a double-walled structure. Such a typical cooling system requires some careful
consideration when methane is being used as a rocket engine fuel owing to the fact that

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Supercritical Methane Flow in the Coolant Channel of a Rocket Engine 143

methane enters the coolant passages at a supercritical pressure but the fluid temperature is
subcritical. Methane having a critical pressure of about 46 bar is seen to exhibit a peculiar
transcritical flow (Pizzarelli, 2015) behavior in the coolant passages. As the fuel passes
through the channel, it absorbs the heat, and the temperature increases and could exceed
the critical temperature.
The critical temperature and pressure of methane is 190 K and 46 bar, respectively
(Younglove and Ely, 1987). Below the critical pressure, phase change is expected when
the temperature is increased. But at a supercritical pressure there is smooth transition of
fluid from "liquid-like" to "gas-like" as it is heated above the critical temperature. The
physical properties of the fluids undergo a sharp change when it passes through the criti-
cal values. The temperature at which a maximum specific heat occurs is referred to as the
pseudocritical temperature. Figure 1 shows the property variation of methane in the vicin-
ity of pseudocritical temperature at a pressure of 50 bar. Data is generated using NIST
REFPROP 9.1 (Lemmon et al., 2007). The prime objective of the present study is to un-
derstand how these property variations affect heat transfer. The sharp change in the prop-
erties can couple with flow mechanics and can result in complex heat transfer. A quantifi-
cation of heat transfer is challenging in these conditions. Both heat transfer enhancement
and heat transfer deterioration are reported in the literature near the regime of critical
point.

FIG. 1: Property variation of methane near pseudocritical temperature

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144 Arakkaparambil, Kumar, & Vaidyanathan

2. COMPUTATIONAL STUDY

With a motivation to primarily study the heat transfer aspects, a simplified geometrical model
is selected without introducing much complexities such as channel curvature, cross section
changes, etc. In line with the literature (Pizzarelli et al., 2015; Arakkaparambil et al., 2017a)
an analysis with straight channels in a flat plate configuration and asymmetric heating is cho-
sen, which can represent a typical regenerative cooling channel in a rocket engine. An arbi-
trary channel dimension as shown in Fig. 2a, is selected for the analysis.
In the simplified geometry considered for the purpose of comparative evaluation of the ef-
fect of heat flux, the effect of walls on the heat flux has been neglected, and a 2D planar ge-
ometry which represents the symmetric plane is chosen for the numerical study. The geometry
considered here is shown in Fig. 2b. Mass flux of methane to the channel is selected to have
an inlet Reynolds number near 10,000. The bulk fluid temperature at the inlet of the channel
considered in the simulation is 120 K. In order to investigate the onset of heat transfer deterio-
ration, the heat flux is varied systematically by keeping the mass flux constant. The details of
the test cases considered for simulation are shown in Table 1.

FIG. 2: Channel geometry: (a) channel cross section; (b) boundary conditions

TABLE 1: Test cases

Case No. Heat Flux (kW/m 2) Mass Flux (kg/(m 2∙s))

1 100
2 200
3 300
4 400 667
5 500
6 600
7 700

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Supercritical Methane Flow in the Coolant Channel of a Rocket Engine 145

3. 1D MODEL

Naraghi and Foulon (2008) proposed a simple approach for thermal analysis of regenerative
cooling of rocket engines in 2008. A one-dimensional model of the coolant channel mentioned
above is developed in line with the literature (Naraghi and Foulon, 2008). A schematic of the
coolant channel along with the heat flow path and representation of 1D model are shown in
Fig. 3.
In this numerical model, the channel is divided along the axial direction into a number of
segments with a uniform length of dx, as shown in Fig. 3. There will be n + 1 stations for n
number of segments. The quantities Tin and Te are the inlet and exit temperatures of coolant,
respectively. At the first station the temperature and pressure of the coolant are known. The
fluid transport and thermodynamic properties at each station are evaluated using the NIST da-
tabase. Then using these local fluid properties and suitable correlations, the Reynolds number,
Nusselt number, and the heat transfer coefficient at each station are computed. Since the high
aspect ratio channels are generally used in the coolant channels of a rocket engine, the side
walls (channel ribs) can be modeled as a uniform fin with an adiabatic tip. Further it is as-
sumed that all of the heat transferred to the coolant is from the bottom and side walls of the
coolant channel with no heat loss. Hence a simplified one-dimensional heat transfer model of
the coolant channel can be represented by a set of thermal resistances, as shown in Fig. 3b.
The system of 1D equations applicable at a typical station point is presented here. The
length of each segment is small enough so that uniform temperature and heat flux can be as-
sumed for that segment as shown in Fig. 4. Since the heat flux and fluid temperature at the
entry are known, the wall temperature Twi can be computed using the set of equations given
below. As mentioned above, the local fluid properties are used to find the heat transfer coef-
ficient. In order to march to the next station, the enthalpy of the fluid at the next station is
evaluated by using the energy equation as detailed in Eq. (7). Hence by marching from the
first station to the last station and also by implementing the procedure as mentioned above, the
wall temperature along the axial length can be estimated:

FIG. 3: Schematic of the channel (a) and 1D model (b)

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146 Arakkaparambil, Kumar, & Vaidyanathan

FIG. 4: Discretization of the channel

=Q hAunfinned (Twi − Tb ) + h (Twi − Tb ) η fin A fin , (1)

tanh ( mrh)
η fin = , (2)
mrh

hP
m = , (3)
λ Ac

A fin = 2rhdx, (4)

Aunfin = cwdx, (5)

=P 2 (dx + rw) , (6)

Qi + mCp
 iTbi
Tbi +1 = . (7)
mCp
 i

The conventional heat transfer correlations such as the Dittus–Boelter and Gnielinski ones
(Gnielinski, 1976) are having limited applicability at a supercritical pressure since the prop-
erties undergo a sharp change near the pseudocritical temperature (Arakkaparambil et al.,
2017b]). Though there is no single correlation which could fairly predict the heat transfer
at entire supercritical regime, the initially proposed (Jackson and Hall, 1979) and later im-
proved (Bae et al., 2005) ones given by Eq. (8) has been used in the present study for pre-
liminary estimates:
0.3 n
0.82 0.5  ρ w   cp 
Nu b = 0.021 Reb Prb     , (8)
 ρb   c p, b 

= n 0.4 for Tb ≤ Tw ≤ T pc and 1.2T pc ≤ Tb ≤ Tw ,

T  T  T 
n = 0.4 + 0.2  w − 1 for Tb ≤ T pc ≤ Tw , n =0.4 + 0.2  w − 1 1 − 5  b − 1  ,
 T pc   T pc  
     T pc 

for T pc ≤ Tb ≤ 1.2T pc and Tb < Tw .

The results of the 1D model are presented in Fig. 5. It can be seen that a linear trend in
the wall temperature is maintained at low heat fluxes, however the trend changes when the

High Temperature Material Processes

Supercritical Methane Flow in the Coolant Channel of a Rocket Engine 147

FIG. 5: Wall temperature profile — 1D model

heat flux increases. However, the 1D heat transfer correlation given by Eq. (8) has been de-
veloped based on the experiments done using supercritical CO2 in tubes with uniform sym-
metric heating. The prediction capability of such a correlation for applications in the rocket
nozzle coolant channel with asymmetric heating under supercritical conditions need to be
studied. In this respect a 2D numerical attempt of the same problem is carried out, and the
results are compared.

4. 2D NUMERICAL MODEL

The validity of the 1D analysis attempted is a matter to be addressed. The one-

dimensional approximation does not hold well, in a flow field with drastic property varia-
tion. To have a better understanding, the study is extended to a 2D numerical analysis. A
general purpose CFD application of ANSYS FLUENT is used for numerical modeling.
A pressure-based solver for a 2D steady-state problem is selected. The SIMPLE scheme
is selected for coupling pressure and velocity fields. A variable property formulation
of the fluid is implemented using NIST REPROP 9.1. Tables of density, specific heat,
thermal conductivity, and viscosity as a function of temperature are generated using
NIST and incorporated in the ANSYS FLUENT by the user’s defined function. The gov-
erning equations of the mean flow and thermal field with variable fluid properties are as
follows:
continuity equation

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148 Arakkaparambil, Kumar, & Vaidyanathan

∂ (ρU i )
= 0 , (9)
∂xi

momentum equation

∂ (ρU iU j ) ∂  2 ∂U i  ∂   ∂U i ∂U j 
=
− p + µ  + ρg j + µ  +  , 10)
∂xi ∂x j  3 ∂xi  ∂xi   ∂x j ∂xi 

energy equation
∂ ∂  ∂T 
U i (ρE + p )=
 λ  . (11)
∂xi  ∂xi  ∂xi 

A turbulence model is part of a computational procedure to close the system of mean flow
equations. An unknown Reynolds stress term which results from the time averaging of the
Navier–Stokes equations is handled by turbulence modeling. The SST k–ω turbulence model
available in the ANSYS FLUENT is chosen for turbulence modeling. Generally the rocket en-
gine coolant channels experience pressure in the range of 100 to 120 bar. Hence an operating
pressure of 120 bar with velocity inlet and pressure outlet is given as a boundary condition.
The entire computational domain which is having a size of 300 mm in length and 3 mm in
width is discretized using 300 meshes normal to the wall and 1200 meshess along the wall.
The mesh is refined in the direction normal to the wall towards both walls. Refinement of the
mesh is performed to achieve a y+ value of less than 1. The grid sensitivity is analyzed by fur-
ther refining the mesh which has given less than 1% variation in the temperature profile which
is shown in Fig. 6b.

FIG. 6: Simulation of wall temperature for a supercritical CO2 flow (a) and grid convergence (b)

High Temperature Material Processes

Supercritical Methane Flow in the Coolant Channel of a Rocket Engine 149

5. VALIDATION OF 2D NUMERICAL MODEL

A choice of an appropriate turbulent model has been done by first establishing the predict-
ability of a fully developed turbulent velocity profile in a pipe flow. The data of Eggles et
al. (1994) was used which is presented in Fig. 7a. Subsequent to this, a systematic numerical

FIG. 7: Model validation: (a) simulation of turbulent velocity profile; (b) asymmetric heating

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150 Arakkaparambil, Kumar, & Vaidyanathan

study of turbulent heat transfer with constant property for asymmetric heating is carried out.
The data published by Chin et al. (2002) is used for validation. The simulation result experi-
mental data along with the result for the Gnielinski relations are plotted in Fig. 7b.
Further to these studies, an attempt is made to simulate the heat transfer under the super-
critical conditions with variable property. Bae et al. (2005) has carried out direct numerical
simulation of flow of supercritical CO2 in a 1-mm tube. The wall temperature predicted for
the supercritical CO2 by the present model and DNS result are shown in Fig. 7a indicating less
than 2% deviation.

6. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Simulations are carried out by varying the heat flux, keeping mass flux constant. A comparison
of the wall temperature profile obtained in the 1D analysis and 2D numerical simulation is
shown in Fig. 8. At low heat fluxes there is good agreement between the 1D results and 2D
CFD solutions but at high heat fluxes there is a remarkable difference. The fact that there is
remarkable difference between the 1D results and 2D CFD is due to the appreciable property
variations normal to the wall at a high heat flux and hence appreciable variation in the pa-
rameters of the flow normal to wall which impairs the one-dimensional approximation. This
clearly indicates that the 1D analysis is having a limited applicability at a supercritical pres-
sure with asymmetric heating. This effect of property variation normal to wall and its effect on
heat transfer are discussed in the following sections.

FIG. 8: Comparison of 2D CFD results with 1D analysis

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Supercritical Methane Flow in the Coolant Channel of a Rocket Engine 151

The wall temperature obtained in the 2D simulations is plotted in Fig. 9a. In all of these
cases, the bulk temperature of the fluid remains below the pseudocritical value. Though the
bulk temperature is below the pseudocritical one, striking features can be observed in the wall
temperature profile. One would expect a linear variation of the wall temperature for a constant
heat flux. But as is seen in Fig. 5a the heat transfer characteristics change as the heat flux
increases. Such kind of wall temperature variations is attributed to the property variation oc-
curring near to pseudocritical temperature. It can be noted that the wall temperature behaves
linearly till the heat flux is increased to 400 kW/m2. The nonlinearity in the wall temperature
followed by a sharp rise is observed once the heat flux is increased above 400 kW/m2. The
pseudocritical temperature of methane at 120 bar is 224 K. The wall temperature crosses the
pseudocritical temperature when the heat flux is raised to 400 kW/m2. Hence it can be inferred
that the linear variation of the wall temperature for a constant heat flux is exhibited till the
wall temperature reaches a pseudocritical temperature.
When the heat flux is increased above 400 kW/m2, the rate of increase in the wall tem-
perature is around 350 K/m indicating heat transfer deterioration. To understand this, the
local heat transfer coefficient is computed using the following equation (plotted in Fig. 9b):
q"
hx = . (12)
Tw − Tb

The plot of the heat transfer coefficient shown in Fig. 9b clearly indicates deterioration in heat
transfer as the heat flux is increased. For the heat flux values of 100, 200, and 300 kW/m2 the

FIG. 9: Wall temperature and heat transfer coefficient

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152 Arakkaparambil, Kumar, & Vaidyanathan

heat transfer coefficient value is nearly same and exhibits a similar trend. But one can observe
a continuous heat transfer deterioration as the wall flux is increased above 400 kW/m2.

6.1 Heat Transfer Deterioration Analysis

The ratio between the heat flux and mass flux could typically be an indicator for heat transfer
deterioration (Urbano and Nasuti, 2012). The values of this ratio for the test cases considered
are tabulated in Table 2.
From a simple comparison of the wall temperature profile shown in Fig. 9a and listed in Table
2, it can be inferred that heat transfer deterioration is observed for the cases where qʺ/G is above
600. This observation is in line with the studies done by Grabezhnaya and Kirillov (2006).
The following section attempts to ascertain a possible reason for heat transfer deteriora-
tion. Published works oin supercritical heat transfer studies underline the fact that flow ac-
celeration due to the reduction in density can lead to deterioration in heat transfer (Urbano
and Nasuti, 2012). When the wall temperature exceeds the pseudocritical one, the fluid layer
adjacent to the wall would be near or above the pseudocritical temperature which causes
density to drop drastically followed by local flow acceleration. Since the coolant channel is
subjected to an asymmetric heating, the local flow acceleration is observed near the heated
wall only.
The velocity profile at an axial location of x/H = 50 is plotted in Fig. 10. A fully devel-
oped turbulent velocity profile is observed till the heat flux exceeds 400 kW/m2 as shown in
Fig. 10a. The wall temperatures for the cases plotted in Fig. 10a is below the pseudocritical
temperature, hence the variation in the density is minimal resulting in a normal turbulent ve-
locity profile, whereas the local flow acceleration near the heated wall is observed when the
heat flux is increased further as shown in Fig. 10b. Since the wall temperature for the cases
plotted in Fig. 10b is above the pseudocritical one, the density in the vicinity of the heated
wall is reduced drastically, resulting in local flow acceleration. It appears that this local flow
acceleration could be ascribed as a cause for the velocity profile to flatten near the wall. The
turbulence in a flow is maintained by an energy input which arises from the shearing of the
turbulent fluid because of the mean velocity gradient. The flattening of the velocity profile
due to the flow acceleration could be thought of as a means to reduce the mean velocity
gradient near the wall and thereby to reduce the production of turbulence. The production of
turbulence can be quantitatively expressed by a term called "production of k" which is a pro-

TABLE 2: Ratio of heat flux to mass flux

Case No. Heat Flux (kW/m 2) Heat Flux/Mass Flux (J/kg)

1 100 150
2 200 300
3 300 450
4 400 600
5 500 750
6 600 900
7 700 1049

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Supercritical Methane Flow in the Coolant Channel of a Rocket Engine 153

FIG. 10: Velocity profile at x/H = 50: (a) qʺ/G < 600; (b) qʺ/G > 600

duction term in the turbulent kinetic energy equation and is given by Eq. (14). The quantity
"production of k" at x/H = 50 for various heat fluxes is presented in Fig.  11. There are two
peaks in the plot of "production of k" which are near either of the walls. The heated wall is
at a channel height of 0 and the adiabatic wall is at 3 mm. The generation of turbulence near
the adiabatic wall is more and it is slightly increasing as heat flux increases, whereas on the

FIG. 11: Production of k at x/H = 50

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154 Arakkaparambil, Kumar, & Vaidyanathan

heated wall generation of turbulence is reduced as the heat flux is increased. Hence now it is
well evident from Fig. 11 that the local flow acceleration flattens the velocity profile result-
ing in reduction of turbulence production and leading to deterioration of heat transfer as the
heat flux is increased. The onset of heat transfer deterioration can be indicated by the ratio
of the heat flux to the mass flux:

Dk ∂  ν ∂k  ∂ui  ∂u ∂u j 
=  t  + ν t  i +  − ε, (13)
Dt ∂x j σ
 k ∂x j ∂xj  ∂x j ∂xi 

∂ui  ∂ui ∂u j 
Pk =
νt  +  . (14)
∂x j  ∂x j ∂xi 

The unusual heat transfer behavior can be observed when the heat flux reaches
700 kW/m2 as shown in Fig. 9a. A peak in the wall temperature followed by reduction is
observed at x/H value of 68. An attempt is made to understand this behavior. To understand
how the flow field is affected, the velocity profiles at various x/H locations are generated
and are shown in Fig. 12. The velocity profile at various locations gets distorted as the fluid
layer close to the heated wall (channel height 0 indicates the heated wall) is accelerated due
to the drastic reduction in the density. As we move from x/H of 50 to x/H of 66, the lobe at
the bottom portion of the velocity profile is enlarged. But at x/H of 83 as the heat is diffused
into the fluid, the bulk of the flow gets accelerated, and the velocity profile becomes nearly
fuller, and at x/H value of 100 the velocity profile returns back to the normal turbulent
profile. These variations in the velocity profile along the axial direction greatly affect the

FIG. 12: Velocity profile in various sections for qʺ = 700 kW/m2

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Supercritical Methane Flow in the Coolant Channel of a Rocket Engine 155

generation of turbulence, and the respective trend could be used to explain the unusual wall
temperature behavior.
Figure 13 shows the plot of production of k at various sections for a heat flux of
700 kW/m2 and, as expected, the production of turbulence near the unheated wall increases; it
is not the same near the heated wall. Turbulence production reduces as we move from x/H of
50 to 63 and thus the heat transfer gets deteriorated but it improves further downstream due to
the increase of turbulence.

6.2 Influence of Property Variation on Heat Transfer

It is clearly understood that the drastic variation in the fluid properties near the pseudocritical
temperature coupled with flow field changes appears to make the mechanism of heat transfer
complex. Here an attempt is made to understand the relative significance of individual fluid
property in heat transfer under supercritical conditions. Simulations are carried out for a heat
flux of 700 kW/m2 by enforcing one fluid property at a time to constant and allowing others
to vary. When the density is kept constant allowing other fluid properties to vary, the wall
temperature obtained is nearly matching with that given by the Gnielinski correlation which is
presented in Fig. 14. This observation indicates that the variation of density which causes local
flow acceleration is primarily responsible for the deterioration of heat transfer under supercriti-
cal conditions.

6.3 Mitigation of Heat Transfer Deterioration

Having understood the characteristics of heat transfer at a supercritical pressure and the
possible heat transfer deterioration when the wall temperature exceeds the pseudocritical
one, attempts are made to explore the techniques to suppress the heat transfer deterioration.
Based on the heat transfer deterioration analysis, the local flow acceleration due to reduc-

FIG. 13: Production of k in various sections for qʺ = 700 kW/m2

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FIG. 14: Sensitivity of density

tion in density is the main cause for heat transfer deterioration. If the flow acceleration can
be compensated, thereby maintaining the mean velocity gradient and turbulence, the heat
transfer deterioration can be suppressed. A channel with axially varying flow area which can
compensate the flow acceleration by increasing the flow area can be thought of as a candi-
date for the analysis. Simulations are carried out on diverging channels of included angle
from 0.1° to 1°. Results indicated that though there is a marginal improvement at small
angle of divergence of up to 0.3°, heat transfer is further deteriorated at a higher divergence
angle which indicates that a diverging channel may not be a promising candidate for sup-
pressing the heat transfer deterioration.
The effect of the surface roughness on mitigating the heat transfer deterioration is also
studied and found to be effective. The wall surface roughness is systematically increased
from smooth to 18 µm, and simulations are carried out for a heat flux of 700 kW/m2. The
wall temperature profile for various surface roughnesses is plotted in Fig. 15. It can be ob-
served that the wall temperature reduces as the surface roughness is increased indicating im-
provement in heat transfer. Nearly 50% reduction in maximum wall temperature is obtained
for a surface roughness of 12 µm.
The velocity profile shown in Fig. 15b indicates that the local flow acceleration is com-
pensated by the increase in the surface finish, and the normal turbulent velocity profile can be
achieved as the surface roughness increases. The production of turbulence for selected surface
roughness cases are plotted in Fig. 16 which substantiates that the turbulence has increased
thus improving the heat transfer.

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Supercritical Methane Flow in the Coolant Channel of a Rocket Engine 157

FIG. 15: Effect of surface finish on heat transfer: (a) wall temperature; (b) velocity profile

FIG. 16: Production of k for various surface finishes

7. CONCLUSIONS

A systematic numerical study is carried out to investigate the onset of heat transfer dete-
rioration at a supercritical pressure for methane flow through a channel. It is clear that the
standard forced convection correlations such as the Gnielinski and Dittus–Boelter ones are

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158 Arakkaparambil, Kumar, & Vaidyanathan

having limited applicability at a supercritical pressure. The drastic property variations occur-
ring near the pseudocritical temperature can make the flow field complex and can cause an
unusual heat transfer characteristic. In high heat flux condition, the variation in the proper-
ties normal to the wall is appreciable and hence the 1D analysis does not hold good. Till
the wall temperature reaches the pseudocritical temperature, normal heat transfer character-
istics can be expected to occur and beyond this point typical heat transfer deterioration is
observed. The ratio between heat flux and mass flux is used as an indicator for the onset of
heat transfer deterioration. The physical reasoning for the occurrence of heat transfer dete-
rioration at a supercritical pressure has been studied and demonstrated numerically. It is un-
derstood that the local flow acceleration near the heated wall due to the drastic reduction in
the density, which causes reduction in generation of turbulence, is the primary reason for de-
terioration of heat transfer. From the study on influence of property variation on heat trans-
fer, it is well evident that the variation in the density is primarily responsible for the unusual
heat transfer behavior. The present study also attempts to investigate the possible means of
suppressing heat transfer deterioration. The present study reveals that providing a divergence
in a channel with increase in the area to compensate the local flow acceleration is found to
be less effective, whereas increasing the surface roughness has shown appreciable effects in
mitigating the heat transfer deterioration. Increasing surface roughness in the region where
the coolant is near to the pseudocritical temperature can be considered as a possible option
to mitigate the heat transfer deterioration in the coolant channel passage.

REFERENCES

Arakkaparambil, M.S., Kumar, P., and Vaidyanathan, A., A Computational Study to Investigate the Onset
of Heat Transfer Deterioration for a Trans-Critical Methane Flow in a Rocket Engine Coolant Chan-
nel, ICHMT Digital Library Online, Begel House Inc., 2017a.
Arakkaparambil, M.S., Kumar, P., and Vaidyanathan, A., Investigation of Heat Transfer Characteristics
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