Design and Characteristics of Mixture Ratio Stabilizer for Liquid Rocket Engine
- Paper number
IAC-09.C4.P.5
- Author
Dr. Taekyu Jung, Korea Aerospace Research Institute, Korea, Republic of
- Coauthor
Prof. Sejin Kwon, Korea, Republic of
- Year
2009
- Abstract
Liquid bipropellant rocket engines(LREs) have been widely used in launching satellites and delivering warhead as the propulsive performance of bipropellant systems is superior to other types of propellants. One of the advantages of LRE is the ability to vary the thrust over a wide range. A gas generator cycle is widely adopted as the cycle of LRE because of its simplicity and low cost for development. But this cycle requires maintaining the propellant mixture ratio of the gas generator steady at all thrust levels. Unless the mixture ratio is maintained constant, the temperature change of the generated gas results in turbine failure or deterioration of engine performance. Therefore, the exit temperature of the gas generator should be controlled properly through the regulation of propellants mixture ratio with the help of a stabilizer. Although mixture ratio stabilizers have been used for several decades, the literature related to these stabilizers is not readily available due to restrictions on information dissemination on rockets. In the present paper, a bellows-type mixture ratio stabilizer was proposed. Design parameters, which affect the static and dynamic characteristics of the bellows-type stabilizer, were identified through mathematical modeling and theoretical analysis. Also, experiments were carried out to evaluate the static and dynamic performance of the stabilizer. For the experiments, a bellows-type stabilizer proposed in the present study, was designed and fabricated. Experimental results of the stabilizer were compared with simulation results by the mathematical model of the stabilizer. The experimental results showed good agreements with the simulation results on both of steady state and transient condition, which proves that the established mathematical model of the stabilizer is valid. Also, parametric studies were performed using root locus techniques to identify design parameters affecting the dynamic characteristics of the stabilizer.
- Abstract document
- Manuscript document
IAC-09.C4.P.5.pdf (🔒 authorized access only).
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