DIFFUSION-VACUUM TECHNOLOGY OF MANUFACTURING LARGE AXISYMMETRIC ASSEMBLIES OF METAL MESH MATERIALS FOR HEAT EXCHANGE PATHS

Requirements for improving the reliability, service life, and increasing a specific pulse of liquid-propellant rocket engines justify a need for transfer to new designs and manufacturing technologies of regenerative engine cooling system. The paper describes a advanced diffusion-vacuum technology of manufacturing a regenerative cooling circuit for liquid-propellant rocket engine based on the concept of inter-channel coolant transpiration through a porous metal mesh material. The method of diffusion welding of metal wire mesh in vacuum makes it possible to obtain large axisymmetric blanks of metal mesh materials necessary to manufacture the regenerative cooling path of the liquid-propellant rocket engine and recuperative heat exchanger (RHE). The possibility of developing a high-efficient low-gradient porous heat exchange path obtained using a metal mesh material (MMM) has been experimentally confirmed. It is recommended to use metal woven cloth and twill filter screens of standard size П24–П60, С120 as a basic material for manufacturing MMM. Key words: diffusion-vacuum technology, porous mesh material, regenerative cooling system, inter-channel coolant transpiration.

Current problems in the low-frequency dynamics of liquid-propellant rocket propulsion systems

One of the key problems in liquid-propellant rocket engine (LPRE) design is to provide the stability of LPRE working processes, in particular low-frequency stability. In LPRE experimental tryout, every so often there occur situations where the development of divergent oscillations set up in some of the LPRE loops or units results in contingencies: exceeding the engine ultimate strength, pump stall, chamber ignition, etc. Such contingencies may lead to grave consequences, including engine and bench equipment failure. Because of this, mathematical simulation is one of the main tools that allow one to predict he dynamic performance of an LPRE both in its steady operation and in transients and its startup operation features at the design and tryout stage. This paper overviews and analyzes scientific publications for the past 15 years concerned with the study of the dynamics and low-frequency stability of advanced LPREs and units thereof along different lines. This analysis made it possible to identify problems in low-frequency stability prediction and assurance for liquid-propellant rocket propulsion systems (LPRPSs) under design, to cover new research results (experimental and theoretical) on the origination and development of all-engine low-frequency oscillations and low-frequency oscillations in LPRPS systems and units and to identify new approaches to the mathematical simulation and study of low-frequency processes in LPRPSs and promising lines of investigation. The man lineы of the analysis are as follows: the low-frequency dynamics of cavitating inducer-equipped centrifugal pumps and LPRE gas paths, LPRE thrust control problems, the interaction of launch vehicle airframe longitudinal oscillations with low-frequency processes in the sustainer LPRPS, dynamic processes during an LPRE startup/shutdown, and low-frequency in-chamber oscillations.

Numerical Computation of Specific Impulse and Internal Flow Parameters in Solid Fuel Rocket Motors with Two-Phase Сombustion Products

Eulerian --- Lagrangian method was used in the Fluent computational fluid dynamics system to calculate motion of the two-phase combustion products in the solid fuel rocket motor combustion chamber and nozzle. Condensed phase is assumed to consist of spherical particles with the same diameter, which dimensions are not changing along the motion trajectory. Flows with particle diameters of 3, 5, 7, 9, and 11 μm were investigated. Four versions of the engine combustion chamber configuration were examined: with slotted and smooth cylindrical charge channels, each with external and submerged nozzles. Gas flow and particle trajectories were calculated starting from the solid fuel surface and to the nozzle exit. Volumetric fields of particle concentrations, condensed phase velocities and temperatures, as well as turbulence degree in the solid propellant rocket engine flow duct were obtained. Values of particles velocity and temperature lag from the gas phase along the nozzle length were received. Influence of the charge channel shape, degree of the nozzle submersion and of the condensate particles size on the solid propellant rocket engine specific impulse were determined, and losses were estimated in comparison with the case of ideal flow