The combustion of kerosene with the polymer additive polyisobutylene (PIB) was experimentally investigated. The aim of the study was to measure the effect of PIB kerosene on the efficiency of combustion chamber cooling and the combustion efficiency of the liquid propellant for a rocket engine operating on kerosene and gaseous oxygen (GOX). The study was conducted on an experimental rocket engine using kerosene wall film cooling in the combustion chamber. Fire tests showed that the addition of polyisobutylene to kerosene had no significant effect on the combustion efficiency. However, analysis of the wall temperature measurement results showed that the use of PIB kerosene is more effective for film cooling than pure kerosene, which can increase the efficiency of combustion chamber cooling and subsequently increase its reliability and reusability. Thus, the findings of this study are expected to be of use in further investigations of wall film cooling efficiency.
The paper presents the results of an independent design study into the feasibility of developing for the Super-Heavy Space Rocket (SHSR) with 140–170 ton payload capacity a modular Launch Vehicle (LV) in the form of a tri-pack cluster of three two-stage medium LVs Soyuz-5 and three side-mounted bi-pack clusters based on coupling together the first stages of LV Soyuz-5 based on NPO Energomash oxygen-kerosene main engines RD171MV, RD180, RD191M and a four-chamber version of the RD120 engine. In addition to this, the paper discusses the feasibility of using the tri-pack cluster from the SHSR as a standalone Heavy LV with an increased payload capacity (50–60tons) to assure its more frequent use, and thus upkeep the operational reliability of the more powerful SHSR. The paper demonstrates the feasibility of designing the second-phase reusable versions of the first-stage clusters for SHSR and Heavy LV, as well as the feasibility of manned lunar missions using not two, but only one SHSR.
Key words: integrated launch vehicle, launch vehicle, main engine, tri-pack cluster, bi-pack cluster, crew transportation spacecraft, lunar take-off and landing vehicle.
Nowadays the improvement of the design of liquid-propellant rocket engines (LPREs) depends on a variety of factors and activities, among which we can distinguish, for example, the improvement of energy characteristics of units and assemblies forming part of the LPREs. The article compares the operation of LPRE turbo-pump turbines using double-sided and single-sided labyrinth seals used in Energomash's engines. The key geometrical parameters of each seal variant, images of 3D-models of seals constructed for the calculations, the resulting computational grid for each seal variant, as well as graphs of the pressure distribution and velocity fields are presented for visual comparison. Sectoral leakage was calculated for each variant of the seal, the possibility of reducing the temperature of the turbine inlet working gas was assessed. In the future attention should be paid to a more detailed study of this type of seals with the use of modern computing power
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