• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.14 no.3
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• pp.52-60
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• 2010

Combustion stability tests of 30 $ton_f$-class LRE thrust chamber with double swirl coaxial injector were carried out in domestic ground combustion test facility by means of artificial perturbation method. In these tests, thrust chambers with varying design factors like recess number of injector, baffle length, types of film cooling and chamber diameter were used and test results showed that these design factors are closely related with high frequency combustion stability. By using the oscillation decrement instead of the decay time in the combustion stability analysis of artificially perturbed LRE thrust chamber, it was confirmed that increment of damping factor results in the improvement of high frequency combustion stability of LRE thrust chamber.

• International Journal of Fluid Machinery and Systems
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• v.8 no.4
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• pp.283-293
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• 2015

The effect of the inlet swirling flow in a hydraulic turbine draft tube is a very complex phenomenon, which has been extensively investigated both theoretically and experimentally. In fact, the finding of the optimal flow distribution at the draft tube inlet in order to get the best performance has remained a challenge. Thus, attempting to answer this question, it was assumed that through an automatic optimization process a Genetic Algorithm would be able to manage a parameterized inlet velocity profile in order to achieve the best flow field for a particular draft tube. As a result of the optimization process, it was possible to obtain different draft-tube flow structures generated by the automatic manipulation of parameterized inlet velocity profiles. Thus, this work develops a qualitative and quantitative analysis of these new draft tube flow field structures provoked by the redesigned inlet velocity profiles. The comparisons among the different flow fields obtained clearly illustrate the importance of the flow uniformity at the end of the conduit. Another important aspect has been the elimination of the re-circulating flow area which used to promote an adverse pressure gradient in the cone, deteriorating the pressure recovery effect. Thanks to the evolutionary optimization strategy, it has been possible to demonstrate that the optimized inlet velocity profile can suppress or mitigate, at least numerically, the undesirable draft tube flow characteristics. Finally, since there is only a single swirl number for which the objective function has been minimized, the energy loss factor might be slightly affected by the flow rate if the same relation of the axial-tangential velocity components is maintained, which makes it possible to scale the inlet velocity field to different operating points.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 1999.10a
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• pp.27-27
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• 1999

To illustrate the global variation of the droplet mean diameters and the turbulent flow characteristics in counterflowing internal mixing pneumatic nozzle, the experimental measurements at five axial downstream locations(i.e., at Z=30, 50, 80, 120, and 170mm) were made using a PDPA(Phase Doppler Particle Analyzer) under the different air injection pressures ranging from 40 ㎪ to 120 ㎪. A nozzle with axi-symmetric tangential-drilled four holes at an angle of 15$^{\circ}$ has been designed and manufactured. The distributions of velocities, turbulence intensities, turbulence kinetic energy, turbulent correlation coefficients, spray angle, droplet mean diameters, volume flux, number density are quantitatively analyzed. It is possible to discern the effects of increasing air pressure. It indicates that the strong axial momentum in spite of more or less disparity between the velocity components means more reluctant to disperse radially, and that axial fluctuating velocities are substantially higher than those of radial and tangential ones, suggesting that the disintegration process is enhanced under higher air assist. The larger droplets are detected in the spray centerline at the near stations and smaller ones are generated due to further subsequent breakup at farther axial locations are attributed to the internal mixing type nozzle characteristics. Despite of the strong axial momentum, the poor atomization around the centre close to the nozzle exit is attributed to the lower rates of spherical particles which are not subject to instantaneous breakup. As it goes downstream, however, substantial increases in SMD(Sauter Mean Diameter) from the central part toward spray periphery are understandable because the droplet relative velocity is too low to bring about any subsequent disintegration.

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

• International Journal of Automotive Technology
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• v.5 no.4
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• pp.221-238
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• 2004

Wall interactions of direct injection spray were investigated using laser-sheet imaging, shadowgraphy, wetted footprint and phase Doppler interferometry techniques. A narrow-cone high-pressure swirl injector is used to inject iso-octane fuel onto a plate, which has three different impact angles inside a pressurized chamber. Heated air and plate conditions were compared with unheated cases. Injection interval was also varied in the heated case to compare dry- and wet- wall impingement behaviors. High-speed macroscopic Mie-scattering images showed that presence of wall and air temperature has only minor effect on the bulk spray structure and penetration speed for the narrow-cone injector tested. The overall bulk motions of the spray plume and its spatial position at a given time are basically unaffected until a few millimeters before impacting the wall. The surface properties of the impact surface, such as the temperature, the presence of a preexisting liquid film also have a small effect on the amount of wetting or the wetted footprint; however, they have strong influence on what occurs just after impact or after a film is formed. The shadowgraph in particular shows that the plate temperature has a significant effect on vapor phase propagation. Generally, 10-20% faster horizontal vapor phase propagation is observed along the wall at elevated temperature condition. For impingement onto a preexisting film, more splash and evaporation were also observed. Contrary to some preconceptions, there is no significant splashing and droplet rebounding from surfaces that are interposed in the path of the DI gasoline spray, especially for the oblique impact angle cases. There also appears to be a dense spray front consists of large sac spray droplets in the oblique impact angle cases. The bulk of the spray is not impacted on the surface, but rather is deflected by it The microscopic details as depicted by phase Doppler measurements show that the outcome of the droplet impaction events can be significantly influenced. Only droplets at the spray front have high enough Weber numbers for wall impact to wet, splash or rebound. Using the sign of vertical velocity, the time-resolved downward droplets and upward droplets are compared. The Weber number of upward moving droplets, which seldom exceeds unity, also decreases as the impact angle decreases, as the droplets tend to impact less and move along the wall in the deflected spray plume.

• Journal of the Korean Institute of Gas
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• v.25 no.6
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• pp.22-28
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• 2021

Combustion characteristics were examined experimentally for a swirl-stabilized double cone premixed burner nozzle used for industrial gas turbines for power generation. An original model and a variant with a different fuel injection pattern are tested to compare their combustion characteristics such as NOx, CO and stability in pressurized conditions with single burner-flame and in an ambient multi-flame conditions with multi-burners. Test results show that NOx emissions are smaller for the variant, whose number of fuel holes is reduced with the same total area of fuel holes, in ambient and pressurized single-flame conditions with single burner, which results from enhanced fuel/air mixing due to a higher penetration of fuel into the air stream. The multi-burnerflame test results show that NOx emissions are smaller for the variant due to reduced flame interactions, which, on the contrary, slightly reduces the stability margin. On-site test results fromin an actual power plants also show that NOx emissions are reduced for the variant, compared with the original one, which is in agreement with the lab test results stated above.