Design of Cooling Channels of Preburners for Small Liquid Rocket Engines with Computational Flow and Heat Transfer Analysis

Abstract

A series of computational analyses was performed to predict the cooling process by the cooling channel of preburners used for kerosene-liquid oxygen staged combustion cycle rocket engines. As an oxygen-rich combustion occurs in the kerosene fueled preburner, it is of great importance to control the wall temperature so that it does not exceed the critical temperature. However, since the heat transfer is proportional to the speed of fluid running inside the channel, the high heat transfer leads to a trade-off of pressure loss. For this reason, it is necessary to establish a certain criteria between the pressure loss and the heat transfer or the wall surface temperature. The design factors of the cooling channel were determined by the computational research, and a test model was manufactured. The test model was used for the hot fire tests to prove the function of the cooling mechanism, among other purposes.

Keywords

• preburner
• stage combustion
• liquid rocket engine
• gas generator
• cooling channel
• oxygen rich combustion