ABSTRACT: Viscous heating under high shear has been proposed as a possible cause for the
accidental ignition of liquid monopropellants. A typical experiment consists of the rapid
compression of a drop of l iquid between two parallel solid plates. This process is
simulated numerically by solving a boundary-layer version of the Navier-Stokes equations.
It is found that allowing for the decrease of viscosity with increasing temperature leads
to a major reduction in the estimated peak temperature. On the basis of these results, it
would seem that accidental ignition by viscous heating is an unlikely event. The effect of
wall slip is also briefly considered.
Proc. Roy. Soc. London A452, 2767-2783, 1996
Andrea Prosperetti's Homepage | Publications