• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2013

A liquid-monopropellant hydrazine thruster has several outstanding advantages such as relatively-simple structure, long/stable propellant storability, clean exhaust products, and so on. Therefore hydrazine thruster has such a wide application as orbit and attitude control system (ACS) for space vehicles. A hydrazine thruster with the medium-level thrust to be used in the ACS of space launch vehicles (SLV) has been developed, and its ground firing test result is presented in terms of thrust, impulse bit, temperature, and chamber pressure. It is verified through the performance test that the response and repeatability of thrust are very excellent, and the thrust efficiencies compared to its ideal requirement are larger than 93%.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.25-33
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• 2017

In this study, combustion tests were performed to investigate combustion performance of a pintle injector engine with double row rectangular slot which uses kerosene and liquid oxygens as propellants. The double row rectangular slot was designed to improve the combustion performance of a pintle engine with a single row and the blockage factor was changed from 0.7 to 1.0. The main design parameters of the double row were distance between rows, area ratio and aspect ratio. The characteristic velocity efficiency was measured from 92.4 to 96.9 percentage for double row but 86.8 percentage for single row. It showed the highest combustion performance at the BF 0.85.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.60-71
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• 2022

The reusable, low-cost launch vehicle development trend in the recent launch vehicle market is being subdivided into several ways, and the throttleable engine is one of them. Plus, several nations have selected methane as a next-generation propellant due to its cleanness. In this research, a throttleable pintle injector using gas methane and liquid oxygen as propellants was developed, followed by its spray and combustion characteristics analysis, including high pressure cold and hot tests. The designed throttleable pintle injector has a double sleeve structure, and its tightness and functionality are confirmed through repetitive atmospheric, high-pressure cold tests, and hot tests. Though some design errors were discovered and a low throttling level was unable to be achieved in the combustion test.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2017.05a
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• pp.99-103
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• 2017

As a development test of the 75-tonf LOx/Kerosene liquid rocket engine for KSLV-II first Stage Engine, hot firing test of 75-tonf engine are performed. The current status of development test on first stage 75-tonf engine system including combustion chamber, turbopump, gas generator, propellant supply system are presented. During the 75tonf engine test campaign, the development of startup sequence of LOx-Kerosene engine system, engine startup using pyrostarter, ignition of gas generator, steady operation and engine shutdown is successfully performed. As a passenger test during engine hot firing tests, Thrust Vector Control system (TVC) of the engine are also evaluated during engine hot firing test. The results of hot firing test of 75-tonf thrust engine system will be used for the design confirmation and performance evaluation of 75 tonf engine system for KSLV-II first Stage.

• Current Industrial and Technological Trends in Aerospace
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• v.7 no.2
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• pp.68-75
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• 2009

Up to date, demands for satellite including communication are increasing. Advanced countries on space technology such as America, Russia, Europe, Japan, China and so on already had secured launch vehicle technology which can insert a large class satellite to proper orbit. The introduction of technologies on the large class launch vehicle including propulsion system is difficult due to the utilization possibility for defensive reason. The acquisition of indigenous technical expertise on the design and manufacture of valves is believed to contribute to the successful local development of valves for propulsion systems and to significant improvement of local technical level of valve design and development. This paper introduces current status of valves developed by other countries as well as valves developed in domestic. The Developed technology of valves may underlie the construction of engine control systems required for the reliable operation of the KSLV-II engine system and propulsion system.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.89-95
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• 2017

The improvement of a flow coefficient for the recirculation chill-down flow in a main oxidizer shut-off valve has been presented. The flow coefficient, which is mainly affected by the recirculation outlet port size and the configuration inside the valve, has been predicted with measured flow coefficient values. The comparison of experimentally measured flow coefficient with the predicted value shows the effect of valve inside configuration on the flow coefficient. Consequently, the flow coefficient is twice the previous value and about 75% of the pressure loss assigned to the main oxidizer shut-off valve can be used for additional pressure losses for other components in the recirculation chill-down system of a launch vehicle.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.62-80
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• 2021

The requirements for the next-generation propulsion system and for a good propellant have been summarized. The characteristics and effectiveness of kerosene, hydrogen, and methane, which are the fuels that are mainly attracting attention in Korea and abroad, were compared with each other. As a result of the comparison, methane was evaluated to be more advantageous than other fuels in reliability, cost, reusability, maintenance, eco-friendliness, safety, lifespan, technical difficulties, engine cycle selection, application of common bulkhead, and non-disassembly/reassembly delivery. And in terms of performance, the specific impulse of methane is higher than that of kerosene, so the efficiency of the launch vehicle can be increased. Methane's properties incluidng eco-friendliness, low-temperature combustion, long life, and maintenability make it beneficial for reuse and for the development of multi-purpose engines.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2011.04a
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• pp.1-2
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• 2011

Hybrid rockets have lately attracted attention as a strong candidate of small, low cost, safe and reliable launch vehicles. A significant topic is that the first commercially sponsored space ship, SpaceShipOne vehicle chose a hybrid rocket. The main factors for the choice were safety of operation, system cost, quick turnaround, and thrust termination. In Japan, five universities including Hokkaido University and three private companies organized "Hybrid Rocket Research Group" from 1998 to 2002. Their main purpose was to downsize the cost and scale of rocket experiments. In 2002, UNISEC (University Space Engineering Consortium) and HASTIC (Hokkaido Aerospace Science and Technology Incubation Center) took over the educational and R&D rocket activities respectively and the research group dissolved. In 2008, JAXA/ISAS and eleven universities formed "Hybrid Rocket Research Working Group" as a subcommittee of the Steering Committee for Space Engineering in ISAS. Their goal is to demonstrate technical feasibility of lowcost and high frequency launches of nano/micro satellites into sun-synchronous orbits. Hybrid rockets use a combination of solid and liquid propellants. Usually the fuel is in a solid phase. A serious problem of hybrid rockets is the low regression rate of the solid fuel. In single port hybrids the low regression rate below 1 mm/s causes large L/D exceeding a hundred and small fuel loading ratio falling below 0.3. Multi-port hybrids are a typical solution to solve this problem. However, this solution is not the mainstream in Japan. Another approach is to use high regression rate fuels. For example, a fuel regression rate of 4 mm/s decreases L/D to around 10 and increases the loading ratio to around 0.75. Liquefying fuels such as paraffins are strong candidates for high regression fuels and subject of active research in Japan too. Nakagawa et al. in Tokai University employed EVA (Ethylene Vinyl Acetate) to modify viscosity of paraffin based fuels and investigated the effect of viscosity on regression rates. Wada et al. in Akita University employed LTP (Low melting ThermoPlastic) as another candidate of liquefying fuels and demonstrated high regression rates comparable to paraffin fuels. Hori et al. in JAXA/ISAS employed glycidylazide-poly(ethylene glycol) (GAP-PEG) copolymers as high regression rate fuels and modified the combustion characteristics by changing the PEG mixing ratio. Regression rate improvement by changing internal ballistics is another stream of research. The author proposed a new fuel configuration named "CAMUI" in 1998. CAMUI comes from an abbreviation of "cascaded multistage impinging-jet" meaning the distinctive flow field. A CAMUI type fuel grain consists of several cylindrical fuel blocks with two ports in axial direction. The port alignment shifts 90 degrees with each other to make jets out of ports impinge on the upstream end face of the downstream fuel block, resulting in intense heat transfer to the fuel. Yuasa et al. in Tokyo Metropolitan University employed swirling injection method and improved regression rates more than three times higher. However, regression rate distribution along the axis is not uniform due to the decay of the swirl strength. Aso et al. in Kyushu University employed multi-swirl injection to solve this problem. Combinations of swirling injection and paraffin based fuel have been tried and some results show very high regression rates exceeding ten times of conventional one. High fuel regression rates by new fuel, new internal ballistics, or combination of them require faster fuel-oxidizer mixing to maintain combustion efficiency. Nakagawa et al. succeeded to improve combustion efficiency of a paraffin-based fuel from 77% to 96% by a baffle plate. Another effective approach some researchers are trying is to use an aft-chamber to increase residence time. Better understanding of the new flow fields is necessary to reveal basic mechanisms of regression enhancement. Yuasa et al. visualized the combustion field in a swirling injection type motor. Nakagawa et al. observed boundary layer combustion of wax-based fuels. To understand detailed flow structures in swirling flow type hybrids, Sawada et al. (Tohoku Univ.), Teramoto et al. (Univ. of Tokyo), Shimada et al. (ISAS), and Tsuboi et al. (Kyushu Inst. Tech.) are trying to simulate the flow field numerically. Main challenges are turbulent reaction, stiffness due to low Mach number flow, fuel regression model, and other non-steady phenomena. Oshima et al. in Hokkaido University simulated CAMUI type flow fields and discussed correspondence relation between regression distribution of a burning surface and the vortex structure over the surface.

• Aerospace Engineering and Technology
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.196-202
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• 2005

In cryogenic feeding system of turbo pump fed liquid-propulsion rocket, rise of cryogenic propellant temperature can bring into geysering in pipe or cavitation in turbo pump. In this paper, performance analysis of recirculation line which is one of the method to inhibit these phenomenon is carried out based on the configuration of KSLV-I 1st stage LOX feeding system, and parametric study to find design parameter. Diameter and re-entrance height, initial LOX temperature, ullage pressure, and natural convection heat transfer coefficient are varied to see the effects on performance. Additional He is injected into recirculation line to promote LOX recirculation. 1-dimensional analysis using network-solver, SINDA/FLUINT is carried out.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.140-146
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• 2008

The floating ring seal which is used in the high pressure turbo pump is frequently used in the oxidizer pump and the fuel pump of the turbo pump of the liquid propulsion rocket, because it is able to minimize clearance to decrease the leakage flow rate. But, the floating ring seal has a tendency to increase instability in decreasing eccentricity ratio. To complement this weakness, it is devised bump floating ring seal which is inserted bump in the outer surface. It has various experiment results. But the theoretical study of the bump floating ring seal didn't investigated yet. In this paper, we analyse about static characteristics of bump floating ring seal, compared previous experimental results. To analyze the characteristic of bump floating ring seal, we coupled perturbation method of floating ring seal and FEM of bump foil.