• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2010.05a
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• pp.21-24
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• 2010

The cooling channel of the preburner for staged combustion engines was studied. The combustion pressure of the researched preburner is about 210 bar which is very high compared with the engines of the Korean Launch Vechicle and 30 ton class liquid rocket engines developed as a pre-research program. Also, the combustion is an oxygen rich process unlike the gas generators of open cycle kerosene engines. Thus the cooling process is very important to make the preburner stable. Many configurations for the preburner were developed and numerically analyzed. As a result, the pressure loss could be reached below the target.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.20 no.3
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• pp.1-8
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• 2016

It was examined that start-up characteristics of a staged combustion cycle engine powerpack. Among various parameters, valve opening time was considered as a main factor affecting the start-up characteristics. Using monte-carlo method, characteristics variation was analyzed when the valve opening time deviates from the nominal value. As a result, the main fuel valve opening time and the start turbine ending time were significant associated with the startup characteristics. When separating main fuel valve opening time and start turbine stop time, main fuel valve opening time was an important factor. For stable operation, the main fuel valve opening time must be set one second before after driving the start turbine. Likewise, it was confirmed that the startup analysis can suggest an appropriate startup sequence for a stable startup.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.19 no.5
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• pp.62-70
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• 2015

A liquid rocket engine system can cause rapid pressure and temperature variations during the startup period. Thus the startup analysis is required to reduce time and expense for successful development of liquid rocket engine through the startup prediction. In this study, a startup analysis simulator is developed for a staged combustion cycle engine powerpack. This simulator calculates propellant flow rates using pressure and flow rate balances. In addition, a rotational speed of turbopump is obtained as a function of time by mathematical modeling. A startup analysis result shows that the time to reach a steady-state and a rotational speed at the steady-state are 1.3 sec and 27,500 rpm, respectively. Moreover it can indicate proper startup sequences for stable operation.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.101-112
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• 2021

SpaceX shows various strategies such as constructing various payload portfolio through the reuse of Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy, constructing the launch vehicles using one type of engine, the transition from kerosene engine to methane engine, and the use of 3D printing. In this study, launch vehicle proposals that can cover a variety of payloads and trajectories from KOMPSAT to GEO-KOMPSAT were constructed, and ten launch vehicles using kerosene gas generator cycle engine, kerosene staged-combustion cycle engine, and methane staged-combustion cycle engine were reviewed. Of the ten launch vehicles, the reusable launch vehicle using a 35-ton methane engine was rated as the best in terms of development potential.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2011.04a
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• pp.97-100
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• 2011

It is critical to set up the starting sequence of liquid rocket engines because not carefully arranged process can lead the engine damages. Thus, many efforts were made to prevent the hard start at the ignition. Hypergolic fuels are frequently used to ignite LRE and TEAL, one of the hypergolic fuel is also used for kerosene-LOx LRE ignition. However, since we are still lack of experiences igniting oxygen rich preburners of the staged combustion cycle engines, it would be helpful to estimate the TEAL ignition phenomena before the actual tests.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2010.11a
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• pp.5-8
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• 2010

The GCSC injectors studied in this paper are those applied to the combustion chamber of staged combustion engines. Liquid fuel is injected through tangential holes along the outer wall of the GCSC injector forming a swirling sheet and oxygen rich gas generated by a preburner enters axially through the center orifice of the injector to form a gaseous jet. The spray characteristics of GCSC injectors under ambient/high pressure conditions and the effect of recess on spray characteristics have been examined in this paper. These results are expected to be used as fundamental data to develop of a staged combustion engine.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2011.11a
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• pp.869-872
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• 2011

Ignition tests of an oxidizer rich preburner for a staged combustion cycle liquid rocket engine were performed to evaluate combustion performance. Design operation conditions of the tested oxidizer rich preburner are about 60 of OF ratio and 20 MPa of combustion pressure. The entire kerosene and some LOx injected into the mixing head is burned in combustion chamber and the remaining LOx injected through center holes of combustion chamber is vaporized. Full flow ignition method with hypergolic fuel was used. Each propellant was supplied in two stages for soft ignition. Test results, low frequency oscillation was occurred in low flow rate conditions under 45% of design flow rate. Stable ignition in the course of design combustion pressure was able to induce by minimization of low flow rate ignition region to escape low frequency oscillation.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2012.05a
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• pp.106-109
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• 2012

It was designed and tested ignition that an oxidizer rich preburner for a staged combustion cycle liquid rocket engine propelled by kerosene and LOx. Operation conditions of the preburner are about 60 of OF ratio and 20 MPa of combustion pressure. Ignition characteristics were compared by propellants flowrate. As the results, the higher propellants flowrate, the shorter the ignition delay time and the higher ignition stiffness. The ignition delay time was affected by incoming the oxidizer flowrate through the refrigerative cooling channels. The oxidizer flowrate from the cooling channels decreased by inflow of combustion gas during initial ignition. The oxidizer flowrate of the cooling channels increases, it is rapid recovery by cooling effect, eventually the ignition delay time decreases.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2017.05a
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• pp.849-855
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• 2017

The development of a staged combustion cycle engine with higher perfomance is essential to provide higher transport capability of space launch vehicles. The combustor head of engine has a cone-shaped head and its manifold of combustor has a very complicated structure. The head and manifold have been manufactured by casting or machining methode. Metal 3D printing technologies are recently known as one of promising methods to improve manufacturing process for them because they are possible to over come limitations of the two methods. In this paper, a selective laser sintering method is used to make test materials and their physical properties are studying by changing its operation parameters to establish the better processing conditions. It is found that the 3D printing method is acceptable to manufacturing the head or manifold of combustor for staged combustion cycle engine.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.52-57
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• 2018

This paper presents the design and cold flow test results of oxidizer-rich preburner injectors for a 9 tonf-class staged combustion engine cycle. Three types of coaxial swirl injectors were designed, and 12 injectors were designed for each type. The diameters of the fuel tangential holes are identical. The diameters of the oxidizer tangential holes were varied to investigate the influence of combustion in the oxidizer-rich preburner according to the momentum ratio of the gas oxidizer generated from combustion in the injector chamber and liquid oxidizer through the cooling channel. It will be verified through a powerpack and combustion test using an oxidizer-rich preburner. In the cold flow test, the fuel flow rate and oxidizer tangential hole flow rate reached the target value based on the designed differential pressure.