Abstract
In liquid rocket engine, propellant feed rate is proportional to approximately square root of the pressure difference between injector head and combustion chamber. This ΔP depends on the engine design, but in general on the order of 50psi. However, during ignition period, especially for the pressurized feed system, combustion chamber pressure is almost atmospheric and large ΔP causes over flow of propellants which may lead to catastrophic accident due to hard start. Hard start may be prevented by applying cavitating venturi or/and two step ignition. In cavitating venturi, evaporated propellants near the venturi throat become chocked and flow rate depends on only upstream condition. In two step ignition propellants are supplied to the liquid engine in two different flow rate. First step, to avoid hard start, small amount of propellants are supplied to build up chamber pressure in safe zone, then full propellants to ensure design pressure. In this study, both cavitating venturi and two step ignition method were used for the hot test and hard start problem was completely solved.