• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
• /
• 2011.04a
• /
• pp.1-2
• /
• 2011

Hybrid rockets have lately attracted attention as a strong candidate of small, low cost, safe and reliable launch vehicles. A significant topic is that the first commercially sponsored space ship, SpaceShipOne vehicle chose a hybrid rocket. The main factors for the choice were safety of operation, system cost, quick turnaround, and thrust termination. In Japan, five universities including Hokkaido University and three private companies organized "Hybrid Rocket Research Group" from 1998 to 2002. Their main purpose was to downsize the cost and scale of rocket experiments. In 2002, UNISEC (University Space Engineering Consortium) and HASTIC (Hokkaido Aerospace Science and Technology Incubation Center) took over the educational and R&D rocket activities respectively and the research group dissolved. In 2008, JAXA/ISAS and eleven universities formed "Hybrid Rocket Research Working Group" as a subcommittee of the Steering Committee for Space Engineering in ISAS. Their goal is to demonstrate technical feasibility of lowcost and high frequency launches of nano/micro satellites into sun-synchronous orbits. Hybrid rockets use a combination of solid and liquid propellants. Usually the fuel is in a solid phase. A serious problem of hybrid rockets is the low regression rate of the solid fuel. In single port hybrids the low regression rate below 1 mm/s causes large L/D exceeding a hundred and small fuel loading ratio falling below 0.3. Multi-port hybrids are a typical solution to solve this problem. However, this solution is not the mainstream in Japan. Another approach is to use high regression rate fuels. For example, a fuel regression rate of 4 mm/s decreases L/D to around 10 and increases the loading ratio to around 0.75. Liquefying fuels such as paraffins are strong candidates for high regression fuels and subject of active research in Japan too. Nakagawa et al. in Tokai University employed EVA (Ethylene Vinyl Acetate) to modify viscosity of paraffin based fuels and investigated the effect of viscosity on regression rates. Wada et al. in Akita University employed LTP (Low melting ThermoPlastic) as another candidate of liquefying fuels and demonstrated high regression rates comparable to paraffin fuels. Hori et al. in JAXA/ISAS employed glycidylazide-poly(ethylene glycol) (GAP-PEG) copolymers as high regression rate fuels and modified the combustion characteristics by changing the PEG mixing ratio. Regression rate improvement by changing internal ballistics is another stream of research. The author proposed a new fuel configuration named "CAMUI" in 1998. CAMUI comes from an abbreviation of "cascaded multistage impinging-jet" meaning the distinctive flow field. A CAMUI type fuel grain consists of several cylindrical fuel blocks with two ports in axial direction. The port alignment shifts 90 degrees with each other to make jets out of ports impinge on the upstream end face of the downstream fuel block, resulting in intense heat transfer to the fuel. Yuasa et al. in Tokyo Metropolitan University employed swirling injection method and improved regression rates more than three times higher. However, regression rate distribution along the axis is not uniform due to the decay of the swirl strength. Aso et al. in Kyushu University employed multi-swirl injection to solve this problem. Combinations of swirling injection and paraffin based fuel have been tried and some results show very high regression rates exceeding ten times of conventional one. High fuel regression rates by new fuel, new internal ballistics, or combination of them require faster fuel-oxidizer mixing to maintain combustion efficiency. Nakagawa et al. succeeded to improve combustion efficiency of a paraffin-based fuel from 77% to 96% by a baffle plate. Another effective approach some researchers are trying is to use an aft-chamber to increase residence time. Better understanding of the new flow fields is necessary to reveal basic mechanisms of regression enhancement. Yuasa et al. visualized the combustion field in a swirling injection type motor. Nakagawa et al. observed boundary layer combustion of wax-based fuels. To understand detailed flow structures in swirling flow type hybrids, Sawada et al. (Tohoku Univ.), Teramoto et al. (Univ. of Tokyo), Shimada et al. (ISAS), and Tsuboi et al. (Kyushu Inst. Tech.) are trying to simulate the flow field numerically. Main challenges are turbulent reaction, stiffness due to low Mach number flow, fuel regression model, and other non-steady phenomena. Oshima et al. in Hokkaido University simulated CAMUI type flow fields and discussed correspondence relation between regression distribution of a burning surface and the vortex structure over the surface.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
• /
• v.20 no.1
• /
• pp.69-75
• /
• 2016

This paper covers the result of construction and start-up tests of the KSLV(Korea Space Launch Vehicle)-II combustion chamber hot-firing test facility. This facility was constructed from 2012 to 2014. Start-up test of this facility began in the second half of 2014. Oxidizer cold flow test, fuel cold flow test and cooling water cold flow test were carried out as start-up test. Afterward, ignition test of combustion chamber was accomplished. The result of ignition test is applied to set up start-up sequence of KSLV-II combustion chamber and utilized as base line data for hot-firing test of low and normal design point.

• Journal of the Korea Academia-Industrial cooperation Society
• /
• v.20 no.7
• /
• pp.20-25
• /
• 2019

In this paper, the structural weakness analysis and quality improvement of small fixed wing UAV of the hard landing type were studied. Unlike conventional aircraft, small UAV does not use runways because of its small size. Instead, small UAV use hand launch takeoff and hard landings. This type has many operational advantages because it can take off and land in a narrow space. But, the hard landing has a strong impact on the structure of the UAV and can cause serious damage. In order to analyze the exact cause of this phenomenon, the structural analysis was carried out using the 3D structural analysis program (ABAQUS) to identify the location of the fracture. And to improve the accuracy of the structural analysis, properties of the material were obtained through specimen test. As a result of the analysis, structural weaknesses were identified and improved. Thus, the validity of the study was verified by demonstrating the quality of enhanced structure through a real impact test at a higher level of 1.5 times the maximum impact during operation.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
• /
• v.25 no.1
• /
• pp.1-11
• /
• 2021

POGO is a dynamic axial instability phenomenon that occurs in liquid-propelled rockets. As the natural frequencies of the fuselage and those of the propellant supply system become closer, the entire system will become unstable. To predict POGO, the propellant (oxidant and fuel) tank in the first stage is modeled as a shell element, and the remaining components, the engine and the upper part, are modeled as mass-spring, and structural analysis is performed. The transmission line model is used to predict the pressure and flow perturbation of the propellant supply system. In this paper, the closed-loop transfer function is constructed by integrating the fuselage structure and fluid modeling as described above. The pogo suppressor consists of a branch pipe and an accumulator that absorbs pressure fluctuations in a passive manner and is located in the middle of the propellant supply system. The design parameters for its design optimization to suppress the decay phenomenon are set as the diameter, length of the branch pipe, and accumulator. Multiple-objective function optimization is performed by setting the energy minimization of the closed loop transfer function in terms of to the mass of the pogo suppressor and that of the propellant as the objective function.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
• /
• v.26 no.4
• /
• pp.54-63
• /
• 2022

A 3-tonf class liquid rocket engine that powers the upper stage of a small launcher and lifts 500 kg payload to 500 km SSO is designed. The small launcher is to utilize the flight-proven technology of the 75-tonf class engine for the first stage. A combination of liquid oxygen and liquid methane has been selected as their cryogenic states can provide an extra boost in specific impulse as well as enable a weight saving via the common dome arrangement. An expander cycle is chosen among others as the low-pressure operation makes it robust and reliable while a specific impulse of over 360 seconds is achievable with the nozzle extension ratio of 120. Key components such as combustion chamber and turbopump are designed for additive manufacturing to a target cost. The engine system provides an evaporated methane for the autogenous pressurization system and the reaction control of the stage. This upper stage propulsion system can be extended to various missions including deep space exploration.