• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.16 no.4
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• pp.42-49
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• 2012

Critical speed of high thrust liquid rocket engine turbopump is obtained through a rotordynamic analysis and a unloaded turbopump test is peformed for validation of the numerical model. The first critical speed predicted by the numerical analysis is correlated well with the test result for the bearing unloaded rotor condition only considering mass unbalance load. Using the previous rotordynamic model, critical speed variation is estimated as a function of varied bearing stiffness due to pump and turbine radial loads with relative angle difference. From the numerical analysis, it is found that the relative angle difference of pump and turbine radial loads greatly affects the critical speed. However, additional axial load reduces the effect derived from the relative angle difference of radial loads.