Numerical simulations of water spraying on the deflector during rocket offshore launching

Abstract Cooling effect of the water jet on the face of the deflector during offshore launching process of the vehicle is studied in this paper. Based on the Reynolds averaging method and three-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations, a realizable k-ε turbulence model simulates the high-speed gas flow in a rocket engine, and the Euler discrete method simulates the gas-liquid coupling between water and engine gas. The accuracy of the above numerical method is verified by comparing the flow field simulation results with the water spray experiment results. Research has shown that during the launch process of the launch vehicle, the surface thermal environment of the 0-meter-high deflector is the most severe. After cooling by spraying water, the cooling of the jet core area on the surface of the deflector is not obvious, but the temperature of other areas decreases significantly. The pressure on the surface of the deflector will not change significantly. Results provide effective solutions for improving thermal environment of the deflector surface during rocket offshore launching and reducing the deflector surface erosion.