Guest Editors
Dr. Sergio Cassese
Email: sergio.cassese@unina.it
Affiliation: Department of Industrial Engineering, University of Naples "Federico II", Naples, Italy
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Research Interests: space propulsion, reacting flows modelling, advanced materials for propulsion and hypersonics, plasma multiphysics modelling, experimental thermos-fluid-dynamics, experimental diagnostics
Prof. Dr. Giuseppe Gallo
Email: gallog@hawaii.edu
Affiliation: Hawaii Rocket Propulsion Laboratory, University of Hawaii, Manoa, USA
Homepage:
Research Interests: chemical rocket propulsion
Summary
Propulsion systems are fundamental to space transportation, enabling access to space through launch vehicles and supporting orbital maneuvers and mission operations of satellites, including small and nanosatellite platforms. Across this wide range of applications, chemical propulsion remains a key enabling technology due to its robustness, flexibility, and technological maturity.
Solid, liquid, and hybrid propulsion systems are extensively used at different scales; however, they continue to attract strong research interest from the scientific community. Ongoing investigations increasingly address the intricate coupling between fluid-dynamic, reactive, and thermophysical processes occurring in combustion chambers, injectors, and nozzles, together with the response of structural materials and coatings exposed to extreme operating conditions. These environments are characterized by very high temperatures and pressure gradients, intense heat and mass transfer, strong shear and turbulence, and highly reactive or corrosive chemical species, often accompanied by multiphase phenomena such as droplet atomization, phase change, soot formation, and particulate-laden flows. The interaction between these complex flows and the surrounding solid boundaries plays a decisive role in determining combustion stability, propulsion efficiency, thrust modulation, and component lifetime. Consequently, current research places growing emphasis on fluid-dynamics guided design and optimization of propulsion components, in which chamber and nozzle geometries, injector configurations, cooling strategies, and material systems are tailored to control flow structures, mitigate thermal and mechanical loads, reduce erosion and ablation, and enhance overall reliability. In this framework, advances in modeling, high-fidelity simulation, and experimentation are enabling integrated approaches that link flow physics, chemical kinetics, and material behavior, thereby supporting the development of robust chemical propulsion systems across scales, from large launch vehicle engines to small-scale thrusters. Submissions welcome a whole range of topics, including, but are not limited to:
- Advanced numerical simulations of reacting, turbulent, and multiphase flows in chemical rocket propulsion
- High-fidelity CFD and multiphysics modeling of combustion chambers and nozzles
- Injection systems and injector design, and their impact on flow field development, mixing, combustion efficiency, and stability
- Chemical, physical, and performance characterization of oxidizers and fuels for space propulsion
- Fluid–structure and fluid–material interactions in chemically reactive and erosive environments
- Materials, coatings, and thermal protection systems for chemical propulsion applications
- Erosion, ablation, and material degradation under extreme thermo-chemical loads
- Experimental validation and diagnostics supporting numerical modeling of propulsion systems
Keywords
chemical propulsion, computational fluid dynamics (CFD),reactive flows, combustion chambers, injection systems, multiphysics modeling, high-temperature materials, ablation and erosion processes, experimental methods
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