Design and Cooling Performance of a Dump-Cooled Rocket Engine
Abstract
A dump-cooled engine was designed and experimentally evaluated as a 500-pound- thrust rocket engine operating at 100-psig chamber pressure with gaseous hydrogen and liquid oxygen as propellants and liquid hydrogen as a coolant. Fourteen firings were made; of these, the last four were with a refractory coating of aluminum oxide on the flame-side surface. Data showing the measured and analytical heat fluxes along with coolant temperatures and pressures through the engine for various coolant flows are presented as a means of determining the minimum satisfactory coolant flow and of checking the validity of the design technique used. In spite of using the obsolete (and incorrect) combustion gas properties in the design of the coolant passages, it was possible to optimize coolant velocity over the main portion of the chamber and to hold the metal temperatures nearly constant and equal to the material limit. The minimum satisfactory coolant flow for this engine was 6. 9 and 7. 5 percent of the total propellant flow for the engine with and without the refractory coating, respectively. The projected potential of dump cooling was investigated by using an analytical performance prediction that assumed a high-temperature inner shell (molybdenum). The results indicated that the coolant exit temperature could be made high enough to yield coolant specific impulses up to and perhaps greater than the specific impulse of the main combustion process.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Aug 01, 1966
- Accession Number
- ADA400422
Entities
People
- Albert J. Pavli
- Jerome K. Curley
- Philip A. Masters
- R. M. Schwartz
Organizations
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration