• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.37 no.8
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• pp.805-811
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• 2009

An oxidizer pump of a turbopump for a 30-ton class gas generator cycle engine was tested in the medium of liquid oxygen. The turbine was driven by cold hydrogen gas in the test. The oxidizer pump was operated stably at both design and off-design conditions, satisfying the performance requirements. The pump head coefficient from the liquid oxygen test was 2~3% lower than that from the water test. The power required to run the oxidizer pump was well balanced with the power produced by the turbine.

• Aerospace Engineering and Technology
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• v.6 no.2
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• pp.205-210
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• 2007

A LOX pump rotordynamic design was performed for a 75 ton thrust liquid rocket engine. Axial positions of an inducer, an impeller and bearings on a shaft are decided on the basis of the experience achieved by previously developed turbopump which has the similar layout. The result of pump hydraulic design was reflected in the present study to decide axial length of the inducer and impeller. A distance from the rear bearing to the impeller was considered as a design parameter for load distribution of the bearings. Asynchronous eigenvalue analysis was performed as a function of rotating speeds and bearing stiffness to investigate critical speed of the LOX pump. From the numerical analysis, it is found that the LOX pump with the proper bearing loads safely operates as a sub-critical rotor of which critical speed is high enough compared to the operating speed 11,000 rpm.

• Aerospace Engineering and Technology
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• v.10 no.1
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• pp.122-128
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• 2011

A series of water tests of a Lox pump for liquid rocket engines are performed at a room temperature. According to the hydraulic test results, the head coefficient is slightly decreased when the rotational speed of the pump is increased. However the efficiency is high at the high-speed test. Also, according to the cavitation test results, the cavitation performance of the pump is found to be decreased when the flow ratio is less than 92%. Furthermore, the vibration characteristic is analyzed using measured high frequency data.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.61-68
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• 2020

7-tonf turbopump real-propellant tests in Naro Space Center were conducted and high-frequency signals from an accelerometer and pressure sensors installed on the casing and the inlet/outlet pipeline of LOX pump were analyzed to estimate the structural and hydrodynamic stabilities. Waterfalls, frequency spectrums and RMS(Root Mean Square) values of the measured signals were calculated and characteristic instability frequencies by the rotating cavitation and the rear floating ring seal(F.R.S) were investigated. Static pressures of the inlet/outlet pipeline and an acceleration of the pump casing are strongly affected on pressure fluctuation induced by the rear floating ring seal in the leakage path. Despite the acceleration RMS value seems totally small, the rotating-speed-related synchronous frequency affecting the shaft instability is distinctly observed in the frequency contour.

• Aerospace Engineering and Technology
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.26-31
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• 2009

Three Lox pumps and one fuel pump are manufactured for turbopump real-propellent tests and water tests of the pumps are performed in order to estimate the performance characteristics of the pumps. According to the test results, the test region(flow ratio, cavitation number) of the pumps at the water tests cover the operating region at the real-propellent tests and also all the pumps satisfy the design requirement. The head of the Lox pumps shows a 2% difference among them due to the internal geometry, but the efficiency and overall cavitation performance are almost same. It is found that the fuel pump has a similar head and efficiency compared with the previous model of the same internal geometry, while it has a little inferior cavitation performance.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2010.05a
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• pp.77-80
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• 2010

A series of hydraulic tests of a Lox pump are performed using water at a room temperature. According to the test results, the Lox pump satisfies its design requirement but both the head and the efficiency do not fully follow the conventional similarity rule. The deviation of the head from the rule is assumed to be due to the increased volute loss at high rotational speed. Furthermore, it is found that when the pump rotates with the flow ratio less then the design requirement the leakage flowrate seems to be increased.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.19 no.6
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• pp.98-104
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• 2015

Excessive thrust acting on the rotor of pump can cause the damage of pump or the decrease of pump lifetime. Therefore, for ensuring the safety of LOX pump of a liquid rocket engine, the thrust of pump rotor is estimated by similarity tests. Axial thrust is indirectly measured by an axial thrust measurement unit positioned outside pump. Radial thrust is calculated based on pressure distribution of volute scroll. As a result, axial and radial thrust are increased when the flowrate of pump decreases. However, both thrusts do not affect the stability of pump rotor since their values are not large.

• Aerospace Engineering and Technology
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.174-180
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• 2006

The present paper describes transient thermal and mechanical analyses of a lox/kerosene type turbopump in a LRE(Liquid Rocket Engine). Turbopumps are used to pressurize propellants to achieve higher specific impulse of LRE. The turbopump under development has been designed and verified by structural analyses using finite element methods. Some parts of the turbopump operate under cryogenic environments, while the others work under ambient and high temperature environments. Therefore, numerical analysis at a turbopump system level is essential. In this study, casing assemblies of lox pump and fuel pump were analyzed to determine strength test and air-tightness test conditions. Also, some operational stress and strains of fuel pump casings were measured and analyzed. Based on these results, stress concentration of fuel pump casings during the operation could be successfully predicted.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.14 no.5
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• pp.57-64
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• 2010

A performance test of inter propellant seal for a 75 ton class turbopump is conducted using water to evaluate leakage and endurance performance. Each part of fuel pump side and oxidizer pump side for a prototype inter propellant seal has been tested for verifying endurance performance during total accumulated test time 2,100 sec in water. The fuel pump side part with one-stage seal of carbon floating ring shows average leakage rate 13.7 gram/sec under average seal differential pressure 9.4 bar. On the other hand, the oxidizer pump side part with two-stage seal assembly of carbon floating rings shows average leakage rate 7.3 gram/sec under average seal differential pressure 9.5 bar. After the endurance performance test, the inter propellant seal shows good physical condition. A leakage performance test of the inter propellant seal for cryogenic environment will be performed using LN2 in the near future.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2010.05a
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• pp.47-53
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• 2010

A performance test of a 75 ton class turbopump inter propellant seal is conducted using water to evaluate leakage and endurance performance. Each fuel pump side part and oxidizer pump side part of a prototype inter propellant seal has been tested for verifying endurance performance during total accumulated test time 2,100 sec in water. The fuel pump side part with 1 stage carbon floating ring seal shows average leakage rate 13.7 gram/sec under average seal differential pressure 9.4 bar. On the other hand, the LOx pump side part with 2 stage carbon floating ring seal shows average leakage rate 7.3 gram/sec under average seal differential pressure 9.5 bar. After the endurance performance test, the inter propellant seal shows good physical condition. A cryogenic leakage performance test of the inter propellant seal will be performed using LN2 in the near future.