Experimental demonstration of an end-burning swirling flow hybrid rocket engine

Abstract

Within the framework of the European H2020 HYPROGEO program, an innovative hybrid engine combustion chamber compatible with satellite requirements (constant thrust over very long burn-times) had to be developed. A first test rig was designed and tested in order to better understand the functioning of this innovative combustion chamber, and to help the design of a breadboard to demonstrate the efficiency of this new engine with respect to the mission requirements. Two test campaigns, the first on the test rig with 87.5% hydrogen peroxide, and the second on the hybrid engine breadboard with 98% hydrogen peroxide, were performed under various operating conditions to demonstrate the catalytic ignitability of this new hybrid engine, and the sustainment of a stable combustion over firing durations up to 180 s. The test campaigns also enabled the identification of the main influencing parameter on the fuel regression rate for this innovative combustion chamber.

The chemical dynamics of hydrogen/hydrogen peroxide blends diluted with steam at compression ignition relevant conditions

“…One such chemical substance that has such potential is hydrogen peroxide (H 2 O 2 ) [89]. Hydrogen peroxide has been used for many decades for propulsion purposes in aerospace applications [90][91][92][93][94][95][96][97][98][99]. Moreover, the addition of hydrogen peroxide in fuel/air mixtures for conventional transport-related applications is a well-documented method of effective ignition promotion.…”

Evaluation of Regression Rate Enhancing Concepts and Techniques for Hybrid Rocket Engines

“…It first occurred with Caravella et al [95,96], although they never published experimental data on the aft-end swirl injection design. Similar concepts were introduced by Haag et al [97,98], Rice et al [99], by Lestrade et al [100,101], at Politecnico di Milano [102][103][104][105][106], by Jansen et al [107] and in Japan [108,109]. Usually, these engines are referred to as Vortex End-Burning Hybrid Engine (VEBH) or Vortex Flow Pancake (VFP) if two fuel discs are used; see Fig.…”

“…Hashish et al [106] measured high combustion efficiencies up to 99%. To counteract the regressing fuel disk and avoid the combustion chamber size to decrease, active [108] and passive [101] actuators have been tested. This is supposed to keep injection location and the burning fuel surface close to each other to avoid combustion instabilities and ensure restartability (especially for catalytic ignition) [101].…”

Effect of Protrusion on Combustion Stability of Hybrid Rocket Motor

“…In the past, several approaches have been implemented to improve the regression rate and combustion efficiency. Some of the important approaches are adding metal additives [4][5][6], using mixed hybrid fuels [7], helical fuel grains [8], increasing the heat transfer to solid fuel surface by controlling the oxidizer flow inside the combustion chamber using swirl injection [9][10][11], cavities at the midst of chamber [22] and protrusions (or diaphragms) [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21][22][23][24]. Apart from these methods, the regression rate can also be improved by using the wax based-fuels which form a melt layer on its surface during combustion.…”