• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
• /
• 2005.11a
• /
• pp.358-362
• /
• 2005

An effective control of the axial thrust of a turbopump is one of the critical issues for its operational stability. In order to assure the stability of a turbopump-type fuel pump for a liquid rocket engine, an axial thrust measurement system was developed and a series of axial thrust tests were performed in water environment. In the tests, the axial thrust of the fuel pump at the design flowrate satisfied the axial force condition of the bearing of the pump. Also, it was found that by using orifices with different geometries in the secondary flow passage the overall axial thrust of the pump could be controlled.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
• /
• v.15 no.6
• /
• pp.46-50
• /
• 2012

A high-speed centrifugal pump requires more attention to the control of its axial thrust due to the high discharge pressure than a conventional industrial pump. Vanes employed toward the rear cavity of the impeller can be an effective device to control the axial thrust of the pump. The vanes disturb circumferential flow of the cavity and it can modify the axial force acting on the impeller. In this paper, three types of vanes are installed in the high-speed centrifugal pump for liquid rocket engines and the thrust of the pump is measured with an additional thrust measurement unit. According to the results, shapes of cavity vanes have effects on the axial thrust of the pump. As the height of vanes increases, the outlet pressure of the rear floating ring seal decreases which results in a decrease of the thrust. On the other hand, head of the pump is almost same regardless of cavity vanes. Also, the pressure drop of the bypass pipeline increases when vanes are removed.

• Aerospace Engineering and Technology
• /
• v.9 no.2
• /
• pp.8-13
• /
• 2010

An effective control of the axial thrust of a turbopump is one of the critical issues for obtaining its operational stability. Axial thrusts of the fuel pump for the 75-ton class rocket engine under development were measured with water as a test propellant at a room temperature. According to the test results, the axial thrust of the fuel pump seemed to satisfy the axial force condition of its bearing. Also, the thrust was increased as a whole when the flowrate of the pump was decreased. Furthermore it was found that the thrust and the leakage flowate were modified when the gaps between the floating ring seals and the impeller were changed.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
• /
• v.10 no.4
• /
• pp.15-20
• /
• 2007

In order to control and balance axial thrust of turbo machine, many types of balancing devices are used but most of them are complicated and sometimes cause troubles. In this study, a very simple device of using shallow grooves mounted on a casing wall, known as "J-Groove", is proposed and studied experimentally and theoretically. The result shows that 70% of axial thrust in an industrial 4-stage centrifugal pump can be reduced at the best efficiency point. Moreover, the analytical method of "interfered gap flow" is established and a simple formula which can determine the optimum dimension of groove and its location is proposed.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
• /
• v.5 no.1
• /
• pp.18-25
• /
• 2001

The results of systematic numerical experiments of secondary gas injection thrust vector control are presented. The effects of secondary injection system such as injection location and nozzle divergent cone angle onto the overall performance parameters such as thrust ratio, specific impulse ratio and axial thrust augmentation, are investigated. Complex nozzle exhaust flows induced by the secondary jet penetration is numerically analyzed by solving unsteady three-dimensional Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations with Baldwin-Lomax turbulence model for closure. Numerical simulations compared with the experiments of secondary air injection into the rocket nozzle of $9.6^{\cire}$ divergent half angle showed good agreement. The results obtained in terms of overall performance parameters showed that locating the secondary injection orifice further downstream of primary nozzle ensures the prevention of occurrence of reflected shock wave, therefore is suitable for efficient and stable thrust vectoring over a wide range of use.