• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.43 no.7
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• pp.593-600
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• 2015

In this study, a combined hybrid rocket system is newly introduced which has characteristics of both gas generators and afterburner type hybrid rockets. In particular, a combined gas generator utilizing solid fuel and liquid/gas oxidizer was designed as a primary combustor of the system. Combustion tests were carried out with various equivalence ratio affected by parameters such as fuel length, oxidizer flow rate, fuel port diameter and fuel type. In general, fuel-rich gas generator produces low combustion gas temperature to meet the temperature requirement and the target temperature was transiently set less than 1600 K. Since it was found that controlling parameters showed limited effects on the change of equivalence ratio, mixture of $O_2$ and $N_2$ as an oxidizer was additionally introduced. As a result, a combined gas generator successfully produced combustion gas temperature of less than 1600 K Future studies will carry out more combustion tests to attain fuel-rich combustion gas temperature less than 1200 K, which was a temperature requirement of a gas generator system in the previous studies.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.12-19
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• 2022

The propellants used in the gas generator of the ducted rocket are fuel-rich propellants, which contain an excessive amount of metal fuel and a small amount of oxidizing agent compared to general solid rocket propellants. In this paper, boron powder and MgAl(Magnesium-Aluminium alloy) were applied to produce fuel-rich propellants. The optimum formulation was determined by characterizing these metal fuel-rich propellants. Analysis of combustion products in the gas generators confirmed that the fuel-rich propellants containing fine boron powder itself instead of boron-bead could be useful in gas generators.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2010.11a
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• pp.9-12
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• 2010

This paper discusses experimental data for the assessment of flow discharging characteristics of double swirl coaxial injectors operating at fuel-rich conditions. Combustion tests employing liquid oxygen and kerosene (Jet A-1) were conducted and a discharge coefficient was utilized for defining flow characteristics. A mass flow rate, a pressure, and a temperature were measured to estimate discharge coefficients. Fuel injectors revealed a fixed value of a discharge coefficient regardless of matched LOx injector design, chamber pressure, and mixture ratio. However, oxidizer injectors showed varying discharging coefficients depending on chamber pressure and mixture ratio. Flame structure variations seem to affect flow discharging characteristics of the oxidizer side.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.45-52
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• 2021

A hot-firing test was conducted using gaseous-methane and gaseous-oxygen under highly fuel-rich condition as a prior study for the development of a liquid propellant small rocket engine. To compare combustion characteristics for various equivalence ratios, the oxygen flow rate was set to 12 g/s and the methane flow rate was changed according to the equivalence ratio. As a result, it was observed that the steady-state characteristic velocity obtained during the hot-firing test steeply rose in the latter part of each test: the difference between the former and the latter steady value was enhanced overall in proportion to the equivalence ratio. Based on this, the equivalence ratio range depending on the variational characteristics of the characteristic velocity could be divided into three combustion regimes.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2011.04a
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• pp.79-82
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• 2011

An afterburning device was developed to safely treat unburnt gases of fuel-rich condition discharged by a gas generator. Hot-firing tests for a subscale gas generator were carried out to investigate operation and safety of the afterburning device. When supplying additional liquid oxygen, the length of the afterburning flame was significantly reduced.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.44 no.7
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• pp.576-584
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• 2016

In this study, AP added propellant has been proposed as a method of enhancing the low specific impulse performance found for staged hybrid rocket engine. Experimental tests were carried out to analyze and evaluate the effect of AP added propellant on specific impulse performance as well as fuel-rich combustion characteristics in a staged hybrid rocket engine. Upper limit of AP content in propellant was set to be 15 wt% to maintain the hybrid rocket engine advantages. As a result, 15 wt% AP added propellant showed 3% higher specific impulse performance compared to 0 wt% AP added propellant. Moreover, AP addition proved to offer less injected oxidizer mass flow, less O/F variation, and less combustion pressure while producing fuel-rich gas of the same combustion temperature. Future studies will carry out more combustion tests with metal additives to further enhance specific impulse.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2009.05a
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• pp.145-148
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• 2009

Combustion tests of a fuel-rich gas generator had been conducted using the assembly of a powerpack. A gas generator is prone to longitudinal modes of combustion instabilities in a powerpack due to the increase of a characteristic length. It has been observed that the orifice inserted at the exit of the gas generator suppresses a longitudinal combustion instability. The intensities of pressure fluctuations in the manifolds and the chamber increase quadratically with a chamber pressure. Pressure fluctuations in the fuel manifold reveal two-fold strength greater than those in the oxygen manifold and the chamber. Frequency analysis indicates nonlinear characteristics inherent in the pressure fluctuations in the fuel manifold.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.18 no.5
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• pp.12-18
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• 2014

A study of gas generator Fuel-Rich propellant for air-breathing propulsion system was performed in this paper. General solid propellant comprises a mean of 60% or more oxidizing agents. but, to develop the fuel-rich solid propellant increased the content of the metal fuel and reduced the content of the oxidizing agents by approximately 30%. Very high amount of heat per volume of fuel into the metal having the Boron was used. Amorphous Boron Powder was applied to propellant as beads type and it allowed to design more amount of metal fuel in the fuel-rich propellant. And the Combustion characteristics and properties of fuel-rich solid propellant according to the Boron-bead sizes were confirmed.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.34 no.10
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• pp.56-60
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• 2006

It is essential to predict thermodynamic properties of combustion gas with respect to a propellant mixture ratio for the development of a gas generator for a liquid rocket engine. The present study shows the temperature measurement of exit combustion gas as a function of a mixture ratio through the series of combustion tests of a fuel-rich gas generator with liquid oxygen and Jet A-1. The measurements of dynamic and static pressures, and combustion gas temperatures allowed the estimation of thermodynamic properties like a specific heat ratio, a gas constant, and a constant pressure specific heat of the combustion gas. The comparison of the experimental results with predictions made by interpolation parameters obtained from the modification of the chemical equilibrium code indicates that the interpolation method calibrated using the temperature measurements can be utilized as an effective tool for the initial design of a fuel-rich gas generator.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2008.05a
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• pp.121-124
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• 2008

This paper presents experimental results of dynamic characteristics of fuel-rich gas generators. Pressure fluctuation measurements in the chamber and manifolds have been analyzed. Gas-generator-alone tests revealed stable combustion regardless of a chamber pressure but low-frequency combustion instabilities occurred for cases of turbine-manifold tests at chamber pressure conditions below 50 bar. The instabilities are considered as an axial resonant mode and acoustic intensity increases along with a chamber pressure.