Flow Analysis of Solar Thermal Propulsion System

A commercial CFD scheme FLUENT was used to simulate the working fluid (H₂) flow process in solar thermal propulsion system. According to the ground test operating conditions and parameters of the solar thermal propulsion system, the system properties such as hydrogen flow, heat transfer in the solar thermal propulsion system were studied. The flow field structure of the system and mechanism of heat transfer were explored. At the same time, the performance of the system was investigated by calculating specific impulse of the system. The simulated results are consistent with the experimental results basically, and the discrepancy between simulated results and experimental results has been interpreted reasonably.