• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2005.11a
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• pp.240-246
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• 2005

A series of combustion tests of a 30-tonf-class full scale liquid rocket thrust chamber under development has been carried out to verify its design. The test results revealed decent performance in the aspects of efficiency. The combustion stability is one of the most important parameters of liquid rocket engine in addition to the efficiency. Assessment tests of combustion stability must be accomplished to confirm the possibility of combustion instability due to spontaneous or external disturbances. The combustion stability rating tests of the full scale thrust chamber with temporary baffles made of stainless steel were carried out utilizing pulse guns to estimate combustion stability characteristics. The tests results show highly stable combustion stability characteristics. The outcome acquired from the present experimental study will be used to design an actively cooled baffle that can survive for the life time operation of the thrust chamber.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers A
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• v.30 no.11 s.254
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• pp.1494-1501
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• 2006

Mechanical and physical properties of a copper alloy for a liquid rocket engine(LRE) combustion chamber liner application were tested at various temperatures. All test specimens were heat treated with the condition they might experience during actual fabrication process of the LRE combustion chamber. Physical properties measured include thermal conductivity, specific heat and thermal expansion data. Uniaxial tension tests were preformed to get mechanical properties at several temperatures ranging from room temperature to 600$^{\circ}C$. The result demonstrated that yield stress and ultimate tensile stress of the copper alloy decreases considerably and strain hardening increases as the result of the heat treatment. Since the LRE combustion chamber operates at higher temperature over 400$^{\circ}C$, the copper alloy can exhibit time-dependent behavior. Strain rate, creep and stress relaxation tests were performed to check the time-dependent behavior of the copper alloy. Strain rate tests revealed that strain rate effect is negligible up to 400$^{\circ}C$ while stress-strain curve is changed at 500$^{\circ}C$ as the strain rate is changed. Creep tests were conducted at 250$^{\circ}C$ and 500$^{\circ}C$ and the secondary creep rate was found to be very small at both temperatures implying that creep effect is negligible for the combustion chamber liner because its operating time is quite short.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.788-794
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• 2002

In liquid rocket engine, propellant feed rate is proportional to approximately square root of the pressure difference between injector head and combustion chamber. This ΔP depends on the engine design, but in general on the order of 50psi. However, during ignition period, especially for the pressurized feed system, combustion chamber pressure is almost atmospheric and large ΔP causes over flow of propellants which may lead to catastrophic accident due to hard start. Hard start may be prevented by applying cavitating venturi or/and two step ignition. In cavitating venturi, evaporated propellants near the venturi throat become chocked and flow rate depends on only upstream condition. In two step ignition propellants are supplied to the liquid engine in two different flow rate. First step, to avoid hard start, small amount of propellants are supplied to build up chamber pressure in safe zone, then full propellants to ensure design pressure. In this study, both cavitating venturi and two step ignition method were used for the hot test and hard start problem was completely solved.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2008.11b
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• pp.3154-3158
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• 2008

A liquid rocket engine performance has been analyzed as a function of combustion pressure with LOx/RP-1R. The present method is verified by comparing the specific impulse for various combustion pressure with given pump head model. The optimal combustion pressure is between 150 bar and 200 bar for given efficiencies. Both the optimal combustion pressure and the specific impulse increase for increased turbine efficiency. The optimal combustion pressure decreases and the specific impulse increases for increased combustion efficiency. The pump efficiency and the turbine inlet temperature have the same qualitative effect as the turbine efficiency.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.28 no.1
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• pp.16-23
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• 2004

Acoustic characteristics of unbaffled and baffled combustion chamber are experimentally investigated under atmospheric condition to preliminarily determine baffle for mitigation of combustion instability. To investigate the effect of the baffle which has several configurations such as radial baffles and hub/blade baffle, resonant-frequency shift and damping factors of the chamber were analyzed and compared quantitatively with those of the unbaffled combustion chamber. From a view of acoustic characteristics, radial baffles with several configurations have not much difference in resonant-frequency shift and damping factor ratio with each other. On the other hand, hub and blade baffle is very effective to suppress the first tangential mode which was found to be the most harmful acoustic mode in KSR(Korean Sounding Rocket)-III engine. But more study on design parameters such as hub size and axial length should be done for complete optimization of hub and blade baffle. The present study based on linear acoustic analysis is expected to be a useful confirming tool to predict acoustic field and design a passive control devices such as baffle and acoustic cavity.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.84-91
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• 2014

The flow rate control of a cavitating venturi has been investigated with downstream pressure variation. A set of cavitating venturies for a liquid rocket engine thrust chamber firing test facility have been designed and manufactured. The flow characteristics of the cavitating venturies have been analyzed by experimental and computational methods. Results showed that constant mass flow rate condition was established by the cavitation inside the venturi. However, upstream pressure less than the actual design pressure of the cavitating venturi could not supply a constant flow rate.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.5 no.2
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• pp.1-7
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• 2001

To protect combustion chamber from high temperature combustion gas, regenerative cooling is used for most liquid rocket engine. Although regenerative cooling is the most effective way to protect the chamber from high heat flux, realization of this system requires detail analysis, manufacturing technique and high cost. To demonstrate the possibility of applying regenerative cooling to a real rocket engine, the hot fire test has been carried out for the sub-scale liquid rocket with the water cooling system. The main purpose of the test is to identify the problem area of design, safety and cost effective manufacturing technique. The coolant passage was 3 mm in width and wall thickness was 1 mm with stainless steel. Maximum combustion time and pressure were 60 seconds and 400 psi, respectively. The flow rate of coolant was reduced gradually from 2 kg/s to 0.12 kg/s throughout firing test, combustion chamber was visually examined and no dwfect was observed.

• 한국연소학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2003.12a
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• pp.139-143
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• 2003

Study on the ignition characteristics of combustor and gas generator for LOx-kerosene liquid rocket engine was performed experimentally through a series of combustion tests of sub-scale engine combustor and gas generator. Characteristic of gas-torch ignitor based on gaseous methane and gaseous oxygen was compared with hypergolic ignition using propellant tri-ethyl-aluminium. Gas-torch ignitor showed good performance on igniting sub-scale liquid rocket engine combustor and gas generator. It was observed that the ignition delay is also affected by the extent of nitrogen in the combustion chamber.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Combustion
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• v.5 no.1
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• pp.43-53
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• 2000

Experimental studies on determination of the supply leading time of propellants to combustion chamber have been made to stably and efficiently guarantee the ignition process with liquid rocket engine. The propellant used is a Jet A-1 as fuel and a liquid oxygen as oxidizer. Unlike impinging FOOF type of injectors are arranged radially and the designed O/F ratio is 2.34. The present experiment program also includes the stability on the quadlet type of ignitor using the triethylalumimum as an ignition source and injector life tests. Experimental results clarifies that the propellant supply through LOx leading to combustion chamber is proper for stable ignition and combustion processes based on the fuel and oxidizer manifold pressures, combustion chamber pressure, and the variation of flame length from the nozzle exit with lapse time, and shows that the leading supply time of propellants affects the engine performance little. The effect of positioning cooling holes is remarkable to protect the injector face.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2012.05a
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• pp.35-41
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• 2012

Performance of a liquid rocket thrust chamber with regenerative cooling scheme has been numerically analyzed using in-house CFD code which can predict combustion/cooling performance and provide nozzle design parameters. This paper investigates trade-offs between combustion and cooling performance with varying amount of fuel directly injected into the chamber wall to form cooling films. Also is analyzed the effect of varying mixture ratios for the peripheral injectors on combustion performance enhancement. Further efforts to verify/improve the simulation methodology including comparison with the firing test results are planned to make it a reliable tool to optimize the film cooling and other major design parameters.