• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.13 no.6
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• pp.8-16
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• 2009

The development of high-pressure sub-scale combustion chambers is described. A total of four high-pressure sub-scale combustion chambers having either a detachable structure of the mixing head and the chamber or a single welded regenerative cooling structure have been developed. The sub-scale combustion chambers have a chamber pressure of 70 bar and propellant mass flow rate of 5.1~9.1 kg/s. The propellant mass flow rate and the recess number of the injector were changed for the improvement of combustion performance and they were validated through hot firing tests. The design and manufacturing techniques of regenerative cooling channel and film cooling to be applied to the full-scale combustion chamber were adopted through the present development and verified.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.6 no.4
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• pp.1-6
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• 2002

A numerical heat transfer analysis and the structural analysis were performed for the design of sub-scale combustion chamber's coolant passage. The heat flux through the combustion chamber wall was estimated by 2-D heat transfer analysis of compressible hot gas and the result was applied as a thermal boundary condition of 3-D analysis. The heat flux estimated by the present method agreed well with the experimental correlation and proved to be insensitive to cooling condition. So the same thermal boundary condition was applied for various operating conditions. The maximum temperature of combustion chamber wall was predicted by 3-D analysis for single coolant passage and the result will be used for the development of a regeneratively cooled combustion chamber. Also estimated were the stress distribution and structural safety of coolant passage through the static structural analysis.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Combustion
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• v.10 no.3
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• pp.17-24
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• 2005

A sub-millimeter scale catalytic combustor with a simple plate-shaped combustion chamber was fabricated. A porous ceramics support coated with platinum catalyst was placed in the chamber. The combustor has a gallium arsenide window on the top that is transparent to infrared ray. The temperature distribution in the combustion chamber was measured using infrared thermal imager while hydrogen-air premixture is steadily supplied to the combustor. The area where the catalytic reaction took place broaden for higher flow rate and lower equivalence ratio made activated area in the combustion chamber broaden. The amount of coated platinum catalyst did not affect the reaction. Stop of reaction, which is similar to flame quenching of conventional combustion, was investigated. Large content of heat generation and broad activated area are essential criteria to prevent stop of reaction that has a bad effect on the combustor performance.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.18 no.6
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• pp.1010-1018
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• 2004

This study presents the methodological aspects of combustion instability modeling and provides the numerical results of the model (sub-scale) combustion chamber, regarding geometrical dimensions and operating conditions, which are for determining the combustion stability boundaries using the model chamber. An approach to determine the stability limits and acoustic characteristics of injectors is described intensively. Procedures for extrapolation of the model operating parameters to the actual conditions are presented, which allow the hot-fire test data to be presented by parameters of the combustion chamber pressure and mixture (oxidizer/fuel) ratio, which are customary for designers. Tests with the model chamber, based on the suggested scaling method, are far more cost-effective than with the actual (full-scale) chamber and useful for injector screening at the initial stage of the combustor development in a viewpoint of combustion instabilities.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.19 no.9
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• pp.1821-1832
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• 2005

This study realizes the conceptual method to predict combustion instability in actual full-scale combustion chamber of rocket engines by experimental tests with model (sub-scale) chamber. The model chamber was designed based on the methodologies proposed in the previous work regarding geometrical dimensions and operating conditions, and hot-fire test procedures were followed to obtain stability boundaries. From the experimental tests, two instability regions are presented by the parameters of combustion-chamber pressure and mixture (oxidizer/fuel) ratio, which are customary for combustor designers. It is found that instability characteristics in the chamber with the adopted jet injectors can be explained by the correlation between the characteristic burning or mixing time and the characteristic acoustic time: In each instability region, dynamic behaviors of flames are investigated to verify the hydrodynamically-derived characteristic lengths of the jet injectors. Large-amplitude pressure oscillation observed in upper instability region is found to be generated by lifted-off flames.

• Journal of Mechanical Science and Technology
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• v.20 no.6
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• pp.874-881
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• 2006

Combustion stability characteristics in actual full-scale combustion chamber of a rocket engine are investigated by experimental tests with the model (sub-scale) chamber. The present hot-fire tests adopt the combustion chamber with three configurations of triplet impinging-jet injectors such as F-O-O-F, F-O-F, and O-F-O configurations. Combustion stability bound-aries are obtained and presented by the parameters of combustion-chamber pressure and mixture (oxidizer/fuel) ratio. From the experimental tests, two instability regions are observed and the pressure oscillations have the similar patterns irrespective of injector configuration. But, the O-F-O injector configuration shows broader upper-instability region than the other configurations. To verify the instability mechanism for the lower and upper instability regions, air-purge acoustic test is conducted and the photograph or the flames is taken. As a result, it is found that the pressure oscillations in the two regions can be characterized by the first impinging point of hydraulic jets and pre-blowout combustion, respectively.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.37 no.10
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• pp.1027-1037
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• 2009

The development of a combustion chamber for a 30-$ton_f$ regeneratively-cooled space liquid rocket engine is described. Starting from the development of bi-propellant swirl coaxial injectors, essential technologies were verified through subscale combustion chambers and afterwards applied to the full-scale combustion chambers. A total of 5 full-scale combustion chambers have been utilized to verify ignition, combustion efficiency and stability, cooling, and duration requirements. A total of 46 combustion tests were performed among which 23 tests were parallely performed with stability rating tests using a pulse gun device. The test results have revealed that the 30-$ton_f$ regeneratively-cooled combustion chamber fully complies to the performance and combustion stability requirements and thus concluded that the development is successfully completed.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.26 no.1
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• pp.74-81
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• 2002

Combustion phenomena in a sub-millimeter scale combustor have been investigated. To evaluate scale effect on flame propagation characteristics, a cylindrical combustion chamber with variable depth was built in-house. The combustor was charged with premixed gas of hydrogen and air and ignited electronically. A piezo electric pressure transducer recorded transient pressure after the ignition. Measurements were made at different test conditions specified with chamber depth and initial pressure as parameters. Visual observation was made through a quartz glass window on top side of the combustion chamber using high speed digital video camera. From the pressure data, available work was estimated and compared with energy input required for stable ignition. The preliminary results suggested that the net thermal energy release is sufficient to generate power and enables a combustor of the size in the present study to be used as the energy source of a micro power devices .

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2012.05a
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• pp.457-460
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• 2012

Design and fabrication of a sub-scale thrust chamber for verification of 7 tonf-class thrust chamber injectors were described in this paper. The 7 tonf-class thrust chamber consists of mixing head with 90 coaxial swirl injectors and regeneratively combustion chamber cooled by kerosene. The coaxial swirl injectors with different pressure drop and recess number were designed for 7 tonf full-scale thrust chamber. By applying the designed injectors to the sub-scale thrust chamber before applying them to the full-scale thrust chamber, the injector performance and functioning were verified. The sub-scale thrust chamber consists of 19 injectors, has chamber pressure of 70 bar, total propellant mass flow rate of 4.3 kg/s, mixture ratio(O/F) of 2.45.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.7 no.3
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• pp.8-14
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• 2003

A cooling performance analysis has been made in the 8-channel calorimeter based on sub-scale KSR-III engine. Three-dimensional heat transfer analysis in cooling channels has been performed using the heat flux distribution through the chamber wall predicted from axi-symmetric compressible flow inside the combustion chamber. The heat flux distribution is verified against the published literature. Presented for the development and operation of the calorimeter are the coolant pressure drop, coolant temperature rise and the maximum chamber wall temperature. Required coolant flow rate is determined for given chamber pressure. Cooling performance is also predicted for temperature dependant coolant properties.