Experimental Study of the Combustion Efficiency in Multi-Element Gas-Centered Swirl Coaxial Injectors

Abstract

The effects of the momentum-flux ratio of propellant upon the combustion efficiency of a gas-centered-swirl-coaxial (GCSC) injector used in the combustion chamber of a full-scale 9-tonf staged-combustion-cycle engine were studied experimentally. In the combustion experiment, liquid oxygen was used as an oxidizer, and kerosene was used as fuel. The liquid oxygen and kerosene burned in the preburner drive the turbine of the turbopump under the oxidizer-rich hot-gas condition before flowing into the GCSC injector of the combustion chamber. The oxidizer-rich hot gas is mixed with liquid kerosene passed through combustion chamber’s cooling channel at the injector outlet. This mixture has a dimensionless momentum-flux ratio that depends upon the dispensing speed of the two fluids. Combustion tests were performed under varying mixture ratios and combustion pressures for different injector shapes and numbers of injectors, and the characteristic velocities and performance efficiencies of the combustion were compared. It was found that, for 61 gas-centered swirl-coaxial injectors, as the moment flux ratio increased from 9 to 23, the combustion-characteristic velocity increased linearly and the performance efficiency increased from 0.904 to 0.938. In addition, excellent combustion efficiency was observed when the combustion chamber had a large number of injectors at the same momentum-flux ratio.

Keywords

• injector design
• gas-centered swirl coaxial injectors
• performance efficiency
• gas to liquid momentum flux ratio
• staged-combustion-cycle rocket engines