• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
• /
• v.19 no.3
• /
• pp.89-95
• /
• 2015

Performance test was conducted for an oxidizer pump and a fuel pump for a 7 ton class rocket engine, by using water. The pumps were driven by an electric motor. The hydrodynamic performance and the suction performance were measured at flow ratio of the design and off-design conditions. Head-flow curve, efficiency-flow curve, and head-cavitation number curve were obtained. It is confirmed that the pumps can satisfy the design requirements of hydrodynamic performance in terms of the head and the efficiency. The pumps also satisfied the design requirements of suction performance.

• Tribology and Lubricants
• /
• v.28 no.4
• /
• pp.167-172
• /
• 2012

The turbo pump of a liquid rocket engine is composed of three main parts: the oxidizer pump, fuel pump, and turbine. Liquid oxygen ($LO_X$) is the working fluid in the cryogenic environment in the oxidizer pump, but tests are usually performed using liquid nitrogen ($LN_2$), which has a boiling point similar to that of $LO_X$ but is comparatively safer and easier to use for the test. In this study, a bearing test rig is developed and its performance is evaluated using a cryogenic ball bearing with $LN_2$ as the working fluid. Verifying the performance of the bearing test rig is crucial for ensuring correct working of the turbo pump unit in the liquid rocket engine. A stable test rig for the bearing in a cryogenic environment makes the bearing technology enhance its reliability. The test results show that the system operates stably and the requirement of performance time of 500 s is met. The test results of temperature, motor speed, and torque are discussed. The developed cryogenic bearing test rig is expected to help in widening knowledge and expanding research on ball bearings in the future.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
• /
• v.32 no.4
• /
• pp.249-254
• /
• 2008

Hydrodynamic performance test of a turbopump for a liquid rocket engine is carried out. The turbopump is composed of an oxidizer pump, a fuel pump and a turbine, and the two pumps are driven by the turbine. In the test, water is used for the pumps as working media and air is used for the turbine. Performance parameters of pumps and a turbine are drawn, and a power balance between the pumps and the turbine are calculated. The calculation shows a good power balance, which implies that the pump component tests, the turbine component test and the assembly test are reliably performed. At the starting period of the test, pressure rise-flow rate curve of a pump gradually approaches the ideal curve which could be obtained by very slow starting.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
• /
• v.13 no.3
• /
• pp.20-26
• /
• 2009

Turbopump test for a 30-ton-thrust liquid rocket engine was carried out using real-propellant. Liquid oxygen, kerosene, cold hydrogen gas were used for the oxidizer pump, the fuel pump, and the turbine, respectively. The turbopump was reliably operated at the design and off-design conditions and the performance requirements were satisfied, which implies that the turbopump development at the engine subsystem level is successfully accomplished in the point of performance validation. This paper presents the results of a test where the turbopump was run for 75 seconds at three operating modes. In terms of performance characteristics of pumps and turbine, the results of turbopump assembly test using real-propellant showed a good agreement with those of the turbopump component tests using simulant working fluid.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
• /
• v.14 no.5
• /
• pp.57-64
• /
• 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
• /
• 2008.11a
• /
• pp.359-365
• /
• 2008

Turbopump test for a 30-ton-thrust liquid rocket engine was carried out using real-propellant. Liquid oxygen, kerosene, cold hydrogen gas were used for the oxidizer pump, the fuel pump, the turbine, respectively. The turbopump was run stably at the design and off-design conditions and the performance requirements were satisfied, which implies that the turbopump development at the engine subsystem level is successfully accomplished in the point of performance validation. This paper presents the results of a test where the turbopump was run for 75 seconds at three operating modes. In terms of performance characteristics of pumps and turbine, the results from turbopump assembly test using real-propellant showed a good agreement with those from the turbopump component tests using simulant working fluid.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
• /
• 2006.05a
• /
• pp.1142-1148
• /
• 2006

The floating ring seal which is used in the high pressure turbo pump is frequently used in the oxidizer pump and the fuel pump of the turbo pump of the liquid propulsion rocket, because it is able to minimize clearance to decrease the leakage flow rate. But, floating ring seal has a tendency to increase the force which caused instability of system as the eccentricity ratio increases. In this paper, we devised design of floating ring seal which decrease contact area between floating and supporting ring. Modified floating ring seal has a tendency to decrease the eccentricity ratio compare with original floating ring seal. The whirl frequency ratio which is able to distinguish stability of system decrease compare with original floating ring seal

• Tribology and Lubricants
• /
• v.20 no.4
• /
• pp.183-189
• /
• 2004

The floating ring seal is used in an oxidizer and a fuel pump of the turbo pump unit in the liquid rocket engine to optimize a leakage without rubbing phenomenon. The damper floating ring seal, one of the floating ring seals, is with round hole pattern surfaces. It can reduce the leakage by increased friction factor that obtained from experimental data. In this paper, the leakage test about floating ring seal and damper floating ring seal was conducted. The test result showed the leakage performance of damper floating ring seal was better than the leakage performance of floating ring seal. With the leakage test the lock-up and rotation test about seal was conducted and that position is measured. The relatively large lock-up eccentric ratio was obtained from the test result of damping floating ring seal. The attitude angle of seal increases with increasing of shaft rotation.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society for Noise and Vibration Engineering Conference
• /
• 2004.05a
• /
• pp.820-825
• /
• 2004

The floating ring seal is used in an oxidizer and a fuel pump of the turbo pump unit in the liquid rocket engine to optimize a leakage without rubbing phenomenon. The damper floating ring seal, one of the floating ring seals, is with round hole pattern surfaces. It can reduce the leakage by increased friction factor that obtained from experimental data. In this paper, the leakage test about floating ring seal and damper floating ring seal was conducted. The test result showed the leakage performance of damper floating ring seal was better than the leakage performance of floating ring seal. With the leakage test the lock-up and rotation test about seal was conducted and that position is measured. The relatively large lock-up eccentric ratio was obtained from the test result of damping floating ring seal. The attitude angle of seal increases with increasing of shaft rotation

• Tribology and Lubricants
• /
• v.24 no.3
• /
• pp.140-146
• /
• 2008

The floating ring seal which is used in the high pressure turbo pump is frequently used in the oxidizer pump and the fuel pump of the turbo pump of the liquid propulsion rocket, because it is able to minimize clearance to decrease the leakage flow rate. But, the floating ring seal has a tendency to increase instability in decreasing eccentricity ratio. To complement this weakness, it is devised bump floating ring seal which is inserted bump in the outer surface. It has various experiment results. But the theoretical study of the bump floating ring seal didn't investigated yet. In this paper, we analyse about static characteristics of bump floating ring seal, compared previous experimental results. To analyze the characteristic of bump floating ring seal, we coupled perturbation method of floating ring seal and FEM of bump foil.