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Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

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At least 19 records
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS1967

Effect of Propellant Feed System Coupling and Hydraulic Parameters on Analysis of Chugging

A digital distributed parameter model was used to study the effects of propellant-feed- system coupling and various hydraulic parameters on the analytical prediction of chugging instabilities. Coupling between the combustion chamber and feed system was controlled by varying the compliance of the injector-dome region. The coupling with the feed system above the pump was varied by changing the amount of cavitation compliance at the pump inlet. The stability limits and chugging frequencies proved to be strongly dependent on the degree of feed-system coupling. The maximum stability condition occurred with intermediate coupling. Under conditions of a high degree of feed-system-combustor coupling, the stability limits and chugging frequencies were primarily dependent on the feed-system characteristics; the responses were characterized by beating patterns. For the system analyzed, the pump suction line had little effect on the stability limits or chugging frequencies. Beating, present under the condition of near zero injector -dome compliance, was eliminated when the suction line was decoupled by employing a sufficiently high value of pump-inlet compliance. Under conditions of maximum feed-system coupling, the magnitude and distribution of line losses in the discharge line had a significant effect on the stability limits but had negligible effect on the chugging frequency and beating characteristics. Also, the length of the discharge line greatly affected the stability limits, chugging frequency, and beating characteristics. The length of the suction line, however, had little effect on the stability limits and chugging frequency but did influence the beating pattern. A resistive-shunt device attached to the pump discharge line to suppress chugging was investigated. The analysis showed that the device was effective under conditions of high feed-system coupling.

CHUGGING↗
NASA NTRS1986

Evaluation and Improvement of Liquid Propellant Rocket Chugging Analysis Techniques. Part 1: A One-Dimensional Analysis of Low Frequency Combustion Instability in the Fuel Preburner of the Space Shuttle Main Engine

Low frequency combustion instability, known as chugging, is consistently experienced during shutdown in the fuel and oxidizer preburners of the Space Shuttle Main Engines. Such problems always occur during the helium purge of the residual oxidizer from the preburner manifolds during the shutdown sequence. Possible causes and triggering mechanisms are analyzed and details in modeling the fuel preburner chug are presented. A linearized chugging model, based on the foundation of previous models, capable of predicting the chug occurrence is discussed and the predicted results are presented and compared to experimental work performed by NASA. Sensitivity parameters such as chamber pressure, fuel and oxidizer temperatures, and the effective bulk modulus of the liquid oxidizer are considered in analyzing the fuel preburner chug. The computer program CHUGTEST is utilized to generate the stability boundary for each sensitivity study and the region for stable operation is identified.

Lim, Kair Chuan↗
NASA NTRS2015

Chug and Dynamics of the RS-84 Subscale Preburner

The development of the RS-84 engine began in 2002 as part of the Space Launch Initiative. It was intended to be a reusable liquid oxygen/RP-1 booster engine of approximately 1 Mlbf thrust. Part of the test campaign consisted of testing subscale components to study key technologies such as oxygenrich, liquid oxygen/RP-1 combustion. In late 2003, the subscale preburner completed 4 hot-fire tests at Stennis Space Center with various hardware configurations and operating conditions, but before all planned tests could be completed the RS-84 engine development program was canceled in 2004. Recently, there has been a renewed interest in the development of an oxygen-rich, liquid oxygen/RP-1 combustion engine. Aerojet Rocketdyne and NASA completed testing of the subscale preburner in 2014 at Marshall Space Flight Center in an effort to better understand the chug encountered during the 2003 testing and to collect performance information over a wider range of operating conditions. The 2003 and 2014 data sets included extreme chug oscillations that reached nearly 200% of the chamber pressure and were reduced to well below 10% of the chamber pressure by incorporating a fuel orifice upstream of the fuel manifold. Depending on the hardware configuration and operating condition, a wide range of chug oscillation amplitudes were encountered. The dynamics for both test series were characterized and the data were used in the development of a chug model.

Casiano, M. J↗
NASA NTRS1964

Photographic Study of Liquid-Oxygen Boiling and Gas Injection in the Injector of a Chugging Rocket Engine

High-speed motion pictures were taken of conditions in the injector liquid-oxygen cavity of an RL-10 rocket engine during throttled engine operation. Photographs were taken during operation of the engine in the chugging region as the helium gas was injected to stabilize combustion, during operation at rated thrust, and during transition into chugging conditions as the gas injection was discontinued. Results of the investigation indicate that, during chugging rocket operation of the RL-10 engine, a high population of fairly large bubbles formed and collapsed within the liquid-oxygen cavity at the same frequency as the chamber pressure oscillations. When gaseous helium was injected into the liquid-oxygen cavity, a fog rapidly spread over the entire field of view, and the system immediately became stable. The injection of gaseous helium at rated conditions produced a very slight increase in engine performance but not enough to produce a net gain in a typical mission payload with the extra equipment needed. The inherent low-frequency system instability associated with the fuel system at low thrust levels was reduced by injecting either gaseous helium or hydrogen. Complete stabilization was achieved in some cases, and a reduction in the severity of the oscillations in others. This was apparently due to the ·anchoring of the phase change front to the location of the gas injection.

Conrad, E. William↗
NASA NTRS1985

An investigation of space shuttle main engine shutdown chugging instability

The Space Shuttle Main Engines experience a low frequency pressure pulsation in both the fuel and oxidizer preburners during shutdown. The pressure pulsations (chugging) occur during the helium purge of oxidizer from the preburner manifolds. Possible causes and triggering mechanisms are considered as details of the chugging process are presented and discussed. A simple chugging model capable of predicting pressure excursion amplitudes and frequencies is proposed and preliminary results presented.

George, P. E., II↗
NASA NTRS1988

Evaluation and Improvement of Liquid Propellant Rocket Chugging Analysis Techniques. Part 2: a Study of Low Frequency Combustion Instability in Rocket Engine Preburners Using a Heterogeneous Stirred Tank Reactor Model

During the shutdown of the space shuttle main engine, oxygen flow is shut off from the fuel preburner and helium is used to push the residual oxygen into the combustion chamber. During this process a low frequency combustion instability, or chug, occurs. This chug has resulted in damage to the engine's augmented spark igniter due to backflow of the contents of the preburner combustion chamber into the oxidizer feed system. To determine possible causes and fixes for the chug, the fuel preburner was modeled as a heterogeneous stirred tank combustion chamber, a variable mass flow rate oxidizer feed system, a constant mass flow rate fuel feed system and an exit turbine. Within the combustion chamber gases were assumed perfectly mixed. To account for liquid in the combustion chamber, a uniform droplet distribution was assumed to exist in the chamber, with mean droplet diameter determined from an empirical relation. A computer program was written to integrate the resulting differential equations. Because chamber contents were assumed perfectly mixed, the fuel preburner model erroneously predicted that combustion would not take place during shutdown. The combustion rate model was modified to assume that all liquid oxygen that vaporized instantaneously combusted with fuel. Using this combustion model, the effect of engine parameters on chamber pressure oscillations during the SSME shutdown was calculated.

Bartrand, Timothy A.↗
NASA NTRS1982

Steam chugging analysis in single-vent vapor injection

A complete cycle of the periodic steam chugging phenomenon is analyed. Steam velocity and pressure variations in the vent are described by one-dimensional conservation equations. This is coupled either to the water slug model when water is in the vent, or, the infinite pool spherical bubble model at the vent exit during bubble growth. An isolated spherical bubble model is used for computing the collapse pressures. Comparisons of the model predictions with the UCLA 1/12-scale and the Japan 1/6-scale data indicate that the vent-pipe model predicts the vent-clearing times and the bubble growth times well. In addition, the predicted maximum chugging heights compared well with those measured in the Japan data. On bubble collapse pressures, the comparison with the spherical bubble model predictions is only fair. The model generally overpredicts the magnitude of the spikes. On examining the effects of pool subcooling and steam mass flux, general agreement is found between the predicted trends and those measured.

Lee, C. K. B.↗
NASA NTRS1971

Digital computer program for analyzing chugging instabilities

Program computes combustion delays, gas residence time, characteristic velocity, and other steady-state parameters required for solution of the characteristic equation. Equation is solved for critical values of injector pressure drops and chugging frequency.

Szuch, J. R.↗
NASA NTRS1986

Investigation and modeling of space shuttle main engine shutdown transient chugging

The space shuttle main engines experience a low frequency pressure pulsation in both the fuel and oxidizer preburners during the shutdown transient. This pressure pulsation, called chugging, has been linked to undesirable bearing loads and possible damage to the spark ignitor supply piping for the fuel preburner. The problem is briefly described and a model is proposed that includes: (1) a transient stirred tank reactor model for the combustion chamber, (2) a resistance capacitance model for the supply piping and (3) purge gas/liquid oxygen interface tracking.

George, P. E., II↗