Advanced Cooling Techniques for Hydrocarbon Liquid Rocket Engine Components

Liquid rocket engines may be run for repeatedly over extended periods of time, requiring active cooling. An efficient means of cooling LRE nozzles involves using the liquid fuel or oxidizer itself to provide the cooling, often referred to as regenerative cooling. SEA's liquid rocket combustion chamber and nozzle design code, TDK, can predict the heat transfer to the surface of the nozzle as a function of the nozzle geometry and fuel / oxidizer properties. The standard RTE code predicts the amount of cooling produced by a regenerative cooling system, given the heat transfer to the cooling fluid. In this research effort, we are combining the two codes, so they may iteratively determine the optimal cooling design. In addition, we are extending the capabilities of TDK and RTE to evaluate novel nozzle designs and cooling concepts.