Oxygen Cooling of High Pressure Hydrocarbon Rocket Engines

In hydrocarbon rocket engines, regen cooling with the fuel results in additional problems. Many hydrocarbon fuels have are susceptible to coking in the coolant channels when the coolant or regen wall temperature exceeds a threshold value. The cokebuildup then reduces the regen chamber heat transfer efficiency resulting in reduced life or premature failure of the chamber. Another issue is the presence of trace materials in the fuels that attack and corrode the copper in the combustor liner. Theseproblems occur not only for regen combustion chambers, but also for any type of cooling approach that exposes the hydrocarbon fuel to relatively high temperature materials.These concerns can be eliminated by using the oxidizer to cool the thrust chamber. This program will investigate the system impacts associated with LOX cooling the thrust chamber of a rocket engine. Trade studies will be performed that will define thesystem impacts of the LOX chamber cooling concepts. The LOX cooled approaches will be compared to a baseline fuel cooled rocket engine. From these trade studies, a chamber cooling concept will be developed based on LOX regen cooling, oxygen transpirationcooling, or a combination of the two. LOX cooling will enable the operation of highly reusable hydrocarbon fueled rocket engines. LOX cooling will eliminate the build up of coke or corrosive attack on regen cooling channels, allowing them to achieve their full design life. This technologyhas application for all high pressure rocket engines that use liquid oxygen as a propellant.