Advanced Manufacturing Techniques for Liquid Rocket Engine Components

Rocket propulsion system capabilities are consistently required to improve payload capability and reduce manufacturing cost. One technical challenge the system capability is the reduction of manufacturing cost for low production rate liquid rocket enginecomponents. Reduced hot wall thickness for enhanced cooling is often precluded due to specifications for milling or chemical etching processes. A low heat laser metal deposition process that will accommodate microstructure compatibility and cost reductionwould be of significant value to a myriad of military and commercial engineering applications. Recently developed low heat input precision metal deposition (PMDtm) integrates fusion and post-deposition machining into a single manufacturing process andmachine. An opportunity is presented to incorporate the fundamentals of PMDtm with advanced requirements for specifically designed heat transfer components of liquid rocket engines. Specifically, the proposed Phase I will incorporate fabrication ofintegrated net-shape coolant channel ribs deposited on thin substrates and production of test structures for metallurgical, tensile and high cycle fatigue tests. Phase II will demonstrate prototype components for liquid rocket engine components. Phase IIIcommercialization of the fabrication process for coolant channel rib structures deposited on thin substrates for applications in numerous systems utilizing cooling components is anticipated with a high probability. The nation will benefit from a UnitedStates manufacturing base for an advanced process and a system capable of low heat and low distortion net shape manufacturing. Such a system will enhance capabilities for manufacturing of advanced cooling systems of both commercial and militaryapplications.