• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.24 no.6
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• pp.93-100
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• 2020

The turbopump of the liquid rocket engine adapts an inducer to minimize the cavitation due to the variations of the propellants supply condition. However, the inducer introduces cavitation instabilities which are well-known problems in the engine development. In this paper, operational characteristics by the cavitation instabilities are analyzed and the reliability of the engine is checked when the first stage engine of the KSLV-II is tested at the low inlet pressure conditions. The characteristic frequencies representing the cavitation instabilities of the LOx pump are clearly found in various high frequency sensor signals around the entire engine in addition to the LOx and fuel pump.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2008.05a
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• pp.159-162
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• 2008

In this study, various cycles of liquid rocket engines were surveyed and specifically gas generator after burning cycle was investigated for upper stage motors. The engines for the upper stage can be categorized into three group based on the cycles and propellants at the diagram. Kerosene engines which adapt the gas generator after burning cycle and are located in the region II, are characterized for high combustion pressure and complexity. This cycle usually needs more than two pumps to use the turbine power efficiently. The fuel line can be divided into the gas generator line and the combustor line, and only the gas generator line is need to be pressured more because the combustion pressure in the gas generator is much higher than that of the combustor. Basically, all the oxidizer goes into the gas generator and than to the combustor, thus the auxiliary LOx pump is not critically necessary. However, for the various reasons, the LOx line requires a booster pump. A gas generator after burning cycle engines produces relatively high specific impuls than that of the open cycle engines. Thus it is suitable for upper stages of launch vehicles.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2006.11a
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• pp.122-126
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• 2006

Two types of pressurization system and low weight feeding piping system are developed. With sub-system tests, ullage pressure control performance was verified for 1 step and 2 step pressurization system and the feeding performance of feeding piping system was also verified. The weight of the feeding piping system is low enough for the application of launch vehicle. In addition, LOX conditioning system is developed for avoiding geysering and LOX temperature rise. Integrated performance was verified through integrated on-board feeding system performance tests.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2017.05a
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• pp.1099-1102
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• 2017

High frequency signals are analyzed which are measured at the inlet / outlet pipeline and pump casing during cavitation tests of the fuel pump for the liquid rocket engine. RMS values of each data are shown according to the cavitation number and compared with those of the LOx pump tests and the impact of the cavitation instability is also explored. Analogies about the cavitation number are confirmed between high frequency data of both pumps. In addition, the cavitation instability is found in all the signals and has an affect on the outlet pressure pulsation of the fuel pump.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2005.11a
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• pp.220-223
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• 2005

System design parameters of gas generator cycle liquid rocket engines were investigated and compared in the present study. Characteristic velocity of combustor, pressure drop of combustor injector, exit pressure of pump, pump efficiency and specific power of turbine were considered as a system design parameter. The result shows the characteristic velocity is in the range of 1700-1770 m/s, pressure drop of combustor injector, 4-10 bar, pump exit pressure ratio to combustion pressure, 120-230%, pump efficiency, 60-80%, specific power of turbine, $0.28-0.58MW{\cdot}s/kg$.

• 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.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.21-28
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• 2014

Propellent should be pressurized inside the turbopump to gain high thrust in a projectile. Turbopump is composed of an inducer, which prevents impeller performance deterioration, and an impeller. Several types of cavitation occur inside the inducer, numerous experiments and CFD simulations are conducted. Though, an inducer takes only small portion of total head of the pump and the following impeller determines whole turbopump performance. In addition, low inlet pressure makes the flow to be cavitated not only at the inducer, but also at the impeller in real cases. Therefore, flow through an inducer and an impeller should considered simultaneously. In this study, LOX pump composed of an inducer and an impeller is analyzed by using commercial CFD code ANSYS CFX 13.0. Non-cavitating flow with high inlet pressure and cavitating flow with low inlet pressure are both simulated and head, suction performances are shown. Evolution of the flow and the cavitation by reducing cavitation number and effect of cavitation on pump performance are studied.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2017.05a
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• pp.1144-1147
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• 2017

It was reviewed about the pressure oscillation on the inlet of turbo-pump at the moment of engine startup and shutdown. Specially, This research was performed how much is the effect of PSD(Pogo Suppression Device) about the pressure oscillation on the inlet of turbo-pump at the moment of engine startup and shutdown. For analysis, propellant tank PSD and Engine are modelled with Flowmaster which is the commercial 1D program. As the analysis results, even though the PSD is installed in the pipeline, the pressure drop or rising at the moment of engine startup and shutdown is same compared to the case without PSD. However, it was confirmed that PSD reduces the pressure oscillation of the high frequency band as the original purpose of PSD.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.65-72
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• 2015

Performance tests of a turbopump for the developing 7-tonf liquid rocket engine were conducted. The performance of turbopump components and their power matching were measured and examined firstly under the LN2 and water environment. In the real propellant(LOX and kerosene) environment tests, design and off-design performances of turbopump were fully verified. During the off-design tests, turbopump running time was set the same as engine operating time and pump inlet pressure were set lower than nominal operating value in order to investigate pump suction capability. It have been verified that subject turbopump satisfies required performance - flow rate, head, suction performance and operational time - in the operating regime of developing liquid rocket engine.

• 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.