• International Journal of Aerospace System Engineering
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• v.2 no.2
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• pp.29-33
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• 2015

The multidisciplinary design optimization (MDO) of a launch vehicle (LV) with a hybrid rocket engine (HRE) was carried out to investigate the ability of an HRE for a single-stage LV. The non-dominated sorting genetic algorithm-II (NSGA-II) was employed to solve two design problems. The design problems were formulated as two-objective cases involving maximization of the downrange distance over the target flight altitude and minimization of the gross weight, for two target altitudes: 50.0 km and 100.0 km. Each objective function was empirically estimated. Several non-dominated solutions were obtained using the NSGA-II for each design problem, and in each case, a trade-off was observed between the two objective functions. The results for the two design problem indicate that economical performance of the LV is limited with the HRE in terms of the maximum downrange distances achievable. The LV geometries determined from the non-dominated solutions were examined.

• Advances in aircraft and spacecraft science
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• v.9 no.5
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• pp.401-414
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• 2022

In the present paper, the optimal selection of batteries for an electric pump-fed hybrid rocket engine is analyzed. A two-stage Mars Ascent Vehicle, suitable for the Mars Sample Return Mission, is considered as test case. A single engine is employed in the second stage, whereas the first stage uses a cluster of two engines. The initial mass of the launcher is equal to 500 kg and the same hybrid rocket engine is considered for both stages. Ragone plot-based correlations are embedded in the optimization process in order to chose the optimal values of specific energy and specific power, which minimize the battery mass ad hoc for the optimized engine design and ascent trajectory. Results show that a payload close to 100 kg is achievable considering the current commercial battery technology.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2005.11a
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• pp.375-383
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• 2005

The present paper describes the first development of a LOX/kerosene type turbopump in Korea. The liquid rocket engine, that the turbopump can be applied to, has a 30-ton(metric) level of vacuum thrust and employs a gas generator cycle. The turbopump consists of two single-stage centrifugal pumps, that is, LOX and kerosene pumps, and one single-stage impulse turbine. Inter-propellant seal(IPS) is located between the LOX pump and the kerosene pump to avoid any interaction between the propellants. A series of component and TPU(Turbopump Unit) test has been completed in the level of simulant propellants and ready for hot firing tests.

• International Journal of Aerospace System Engineering
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.25-29
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• 2016

This paper highlights the performance of an impulse turbine which is a part of turbopump in a liquid rocket first stage engine. The turbopump, currently under development at Korea Aerospace Research Institute, has an impulse type turbine with 12 nozzles and a single rotor. The impulse turbine can archive high specific power with the low gas flow rates. The supersonic impulse turbine with a single rotor can make a simple structure. High-pressure gases are converted into the dynamic energy with flows through the 12 nozzles and drive the rotor to make the power for the pumps. The turbine test was performed in the high-pressured turbine test facility with air gas instead of burned gas. A hydraulic dynamometer was used to absorb the power from the turbine and control the rotational speed and torque. The test points were at several pressure ratios with 7 different rotational speeds. Results showed the efficiency was highest at the design pressure ratio. The efficiency was insensitive to the pressure ratio variation than the rotational speed. It was a typical characteristic in an impulse turbine.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.34 no.10
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• pp.71-79
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• 2006

Swirl injector with multi-stage tangential entry was analyzed to suppress high-frequency combustion instability in Liquid Rocket Engines. In order to analyze the effect of swirl injector as an acoustic absorber, swirl injector was regarded as a quarter-wave resonator and it's damping capacity is verified in atmospheric temperature. It has a finite mode of vibration and natural frequencies which can be tuned to the natural frequencies of a model combustion chamber. The interior air core shape of injector is more stable in the case of using the swirl injector with multi-stage entry than with single-stage entry. Also, when the swirl injector with multi-stage entry is used, tuned-injector length for unstable mode is well agreed with the calculated length. From the experimental data, it is proved that if the interior air core shape of swirl injector is stable, the fine tuned swirl injector can decrease the unstable mode of model chamber effectively and increase the damping rate.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• v.y2005m4
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• pp.123-127
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• 2005

LRE(liquid rocket engine) performance design code with several modules for each engine component has been developed for a preliminary design purpose. Thrust chamber, non-cryogenic centrifugal pump, single stage axial impulse turbine, gas generator and exhaust pipe for extra thrust have been considered. For simplicity, pump exit pressures are fixed, which eliminates pressure balancing problem between thrust chamber and turbopump unit. In this paper, calculated performance parameters with system flow charts and the design methodologies for each component are briefly presented and the results are compared with tile real engine specification.

• Current Industrial and Technological Trends in Aerospace
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• v.7 no.1
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• pp.43-55
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• 2009

Advanced countries in aerospace have been struggle to realize the hypersonic air-breathing system since originating the concept of the hypersonic air-breathing propulsion system during the first half of the twentieth century. At last, NASA's X-43A Hyper-X did successful Mach 10 flight in November 2004. Each countries are running the program to applicate this hypersonic air-breathing propulsion system to SSTO(Single Stage to Orbit) or TSTO(Two Stage to Orbit) vehicle or hypersonic missile system at present. In this paper, we wrote the history and current issues of the hypersonic air-breathing propulsion system and hypersonic flight with the hypersonic air-breathing propulsion system.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2004.03a
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• pp.753-762
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• 2004

Conceptual studies of a combined-cycle engine have been conducted. Herein, the results are presented. The engine is composed of ejector-jet, ramjet, scramjet and rocket modes, and will be mounted on the Single-Stage-to-Orbit aerospace plane. Propellants are hydrogen and oxygen. Calculated engine thrust performances and cooling requirement of the engine are presented. Pitching moment of the plane with the engine will be balanced even in the vacuum condition. The experimental results of the inlet and the ejector-jet, ramjet and scramjet modes are presented. The effect of the airframe configuration on the engine performance and the thermal environment in the in-side of the plane are also presented. Through the investigations, possibilities of the combined-cycle engine and the aerospace plane are being made clear now.

• Journal of Aerospace System Engineering
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• v.11 no.1
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• pp.8-13
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• 2017

This study was performed to evaluate the turbine performance of a turbopump in the third stage engine of the Korea Space Launch Vehicle-II. The turbine is a supersonic impulse type with a single rotor. One nozzle is for starting and four remaining nozzles are for steady operation. A similarity test was carried out in the high air test facilities at the Korea Aerospace Research Institute. Test results showed that turbine efficiency changed much more from rotational speed variations than by pressure ratio variations. These results showed characteristics similar to other supersonic impulse turbines.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2008.03a
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• pp.330-339
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• 2008

Ground-based interceptors(GBI) comprise a major element of the strategic defense against hostile targets like Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles(ICBM) and reentry vehicles(RV) dispersed from them. An optimum design of the subsystems is required to increase the performance and reliability of these GBI. Propulsion subsystem design and optimization is the motivation for this effort. This paper describes an effort in which an entire GBI missile system, including a multi-stage solid rocket booster, is considered simultaneously in a Genetic Algorithm(GA) performance optimization process. Single goal, constrained optimization is performed. For specified payload and miss distance, time of flight, the most important component in the optimization process is the booster, for its takeoff weight, time of flight, or a combination of the two. The GBI is assumed to be a multistage missile that uses target location data provided by two ground based RF radar sensors and two low earth orbit(LEO) IR sensors. 3Dimensional model is developed for a multistage target with a boost phase acceleration profile that depends on total mass, propellant mass and the specific impulse in the gravity field. The monostatic radar cross section (RCS) data of a three stage ICBM is used. For preliminary design, GBI is assumed to have a fixed initial position from the target launch point and zero launch delay. GBI carries the Kill Vehicle(KV) to an optimal position in space to allow it to complete the intercept. The objective is to design and optimize the propulsion system for the GBI that will fulfill mission requirements and objectives. The KV weight and volume requirements are specified in the problem definition before the optimization is computed. We have considered only continuous design variables, while considering discrete variables as input. Though the number of stages should also be one of the design variables, however, in this paper it is fixed as three. The elite solution from GA is passed on to(Sequential Quadratic Programming) SQP as near optimal guess. The SQP then performs local convergence to identify the minimum mass of the GBI. The performance of the three staged GBI is validated using a ballistic missile intercept scenario modeled in Matlab/SIMULINK.