Heat transfer evaluation for future cryogenic rocket tanks

What is it about?

Liquid propellant rockets usually use highly energetic liquified gases such as hydrogen or methane as fuel for their engines. These liquified gases can only be stored at very low temperatures in the tanks of a rocket stage. To reduce the heat entering the tank, vacuum insulation can be used for new rocket designs which employ composite materials. In these vacuum honeycomb structures some remaining gas exists because they are not completely leak-tight. Therefore, the heat going through the remaining low pressure gas in the sandwich needs to be analyzed which was done in the current study using particle-based numerical methods.

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Photo by Pranav Kumar Jain on Unsplash

Photo by Pranav Kumar Jain on Unsplash

Why is it important?

The amount of heat entering a cryogenic tank at the launch pad leads to a loss of fuel or oxidizer through propellant boil-off. Reducing this propellant loss before launch can lead to an increased payload mass. Therefore, the current study of the heat transfer through the tank insulation is important for the overall rocket design.