• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2002.10a
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• pp.18-18
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• 2002

A project where the TPUs(Turbo Pump Units) for 10tf-thrust oxygen/methane LRE (Liquid Rocket Engine) are under development is being implemented to include an experimental combustion chamber developed. In the process of it, we introduced the power-balanced engine cycles in order to substantiate concepts of the engine using the combinations of the propellants. Accordingly, the main engine parameters of nominal operating mode are resulted from the 1-Dcalculations and it is found that the regulators are needed for controlling the expected pressure levels in the characteristics of propellant mixture ratio and thrust supposing the regulator is set to analogue-typed one which is easy to develop.The technical requirements like the nominal flow rate, its deviations expected and the pressure difference In need helped the several main characteristics of regulators to be determine in this stage. Here, a dozen of deviation values in the main parameters related to engineoperation are taken into independent consideration and accepted to the results for additional regimes of the regulators.Finally, we can determine the scheme and the primary dimensions along with the calculation design of the spring acceptable for general configuration which can definitely forwarded to the autonomous tests of the aggregates, The obtained data in further will be used for successive refinement of operating mode of the engine.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.22 no.1
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• pp.28-35
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• 2018

In order to analyze the flammability limit and structure of the gaseous methane-gaseous oxygen diffusion flame formed through a shear coaxial injector, combustion experiments were carried out according to the condition of injector recess and propellant mass-flow rate. As a result, it was confirmed that stable anchored flame was observed even at the high oxygen Reynolds number as the propellant momentum flux ratio increased, and that the recess had no significant influence on the flame shape and flammability limit. The anchored flame visualized through a chemiluminescence showed the maximum OH radical emission intensity at a specific position, irrespective of the propellant injection condition, and the radical intensity was greatly reduced by the injector recess.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.1-8
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• 2017

In order to analyze combustion characteristics of methane-oxygen diffusion flame in a model combustor, combustion experiments were carried out under various spray conditions of propellant scrutinizing combustion stability limit and flame shapes. As the propellant approached the theoretical equivalence ratio condition, a stable detached flame was observed even under high oxygen Reynolds number. And the length of the visible flame increased and the lift-off distance of the flame exhibited a tendency toward decrease. Due to the swirl effect of the propellant by the swirl-coaxial injector, a wide and short flame was produced. Thus, it may be appropriate to employ the swirl-coaxial injector in thrusters having a limited physical dimension.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.120-130
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• 2013

A study was conducted for the performance characteristics of methane taking recently the limelight in the world as a next-generation propellant, with the survey for state of the art in the development of methane/oxygen rocket engine being accompanied. Liquid methane as a rocket fuel has the favorable characteristics such as non-toxic, low cost, regenerative cooling capability, and potential for in-situ resource utilization (ISRU). The combination of liquid methane and liquid oxygen also provides the excellent performance including high specific impulse and low system mass. For these reasons, many researches have been actively carried out on the methane/oxygen engine, nevertheless, its technology readiness level is not that high enough just yet. Therefore, it is judged that it is the time to mitigate the technical gap with the space technology of advanced countries through a swift onset of the development of methane rocket engine.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.45 no.7
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• pp.558-565
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• 2017

Recently, there has been a tendency to lead the private sector in the launch vehicle market, and as the market has become saturated, efforts are being made to reduce the launch cost. Advanced countries in space development have promoted manned long-range space exploration plans. As oxygen/methane is more efficient, lower cost, and eco-friendly than typical propellants, and can be produced locally on an alien planet, it is the most suitable next-generation propellant to meet this trend. Now methane engine development is accelerating due to changes in international conditions and corporate environment. It is also expected to develop a methane engine in order to survive in this global trend and to keep up with the launch vehicle market in the future.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2010.11a
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• pp.85-88
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• 2010

This study has been mainly motivated to numerically model the supercritical mixing and combustion processes encountered in the liquid propellant rocket engines. In the present approach, turbulence is represented by the extended $k-{\varepsilon}$ turbulence model. To account for the real fluid effects, the propellant mixture properties are calculated by using SRK (Souve-Redlich-Kwong) equation of state. In order to realistically represent the turbulence-chemistry interaction in the turbulent nonpremixed flames, the flamelet approach based on the real fluid flamelet library has been adopted. Based on numerical results, the detailed discussions are made for the real fluid effects and the precise structure of gaseous methane/liquid oxygen coaxial jet flame.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.23 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2019

To analyze the dynamic behavior and the structure of the gaseous methane-gaseous oxygen diffusion flame formed by a swirl/shear-coaxial injector, combustion experiments were carried out under different propellant injection conditions. As a result, the OH radical emission intensity of the diffusion flame visualized through chemiluminescence was observed to increase as the propellant mass flow and the momentum flux ratio increased. And flames with swirl showed a more high radical emission intensity than those without swirl.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.14 no.4
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• pp.46-58
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• 2010

Hydrogen peroxide(HP) and liquid methane have deserved renewed considerations as green propellants in recent years, because main design concerns in the development of the new generation propulsion system for spacecrafts are concentrated on low operation cost and environmental cleanness. Although HP has a long history of application to aerospace propulsion systems due to high density, mono-propellant characteristics and low toxicity, it had been replaced by hydrazine and liquid oxygen due to extreme performance requirement during the cold war. But HP has received a renewed interest due to its increased stability and many researches have been conducted to develop high performance LREs(Liquid Rocket Engines) using HP. Liquid methane has also received a new interest in rocket propulsion system for the future space exploration according to its possibility of ISRU(In-Situ Resource Utilization).

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.19 no.3
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• pp.47-53
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• 2015

Design parameters required for Methane/oxygen bipropellant small-rocket-engine were derived through a theoretical performance analysis. The theoretical performance of the rocket engine was analyzed by using CEA and optimal propellant mixture ratio, characteristic length, and optimal expansion ratio were calculated by assuming chemical equilibrium. A coaxial-type swirl injector was chosen because of its outstanding atomization performance and high combustion efficiency compared to other types of injector and also a bell nozzle with 80% of its full length was designed. The rocket engine configuration with 1.72 MPa of chamber pressure, 0.18 kg/s in total propellant mass flow, and O/F ratio of 2.7 was proposed as a ground-firing test model.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.89-100
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• 2021

This paper deals with the construction of a combustion test facility and preliminary tests for hot-firing tests of a methane engine. First, the combustion test facility for a 1 kN-class thrust chamber using liquid oxygen/gas methane as propellants was designed and built. Before hot-firing tests, the cold-flow tests of each propellant line and the ignition tests of torch igniter/afterburner were performed to verify propellant supply stability of the combustion test facility, operation of the control and measurement system, and successful ignition. Finally, a preliminary hot-firing test was conducted to measure the combustion efficiency, heat flux, and combustion stability of a thrust chamber prototype. The constructed combustion test facility will be helpfully used for basic research and development of methane engine thrust chambers.