Innovative Hydrogen Peroxide Turbopump Design for Affordable Small Launch Vehicles.

The concept proposed is that of an innovative turbopump for a staged combustion bi-propellant rocket engine using monopropellant to drive the turbine. The turbopump has a unique feature in that it has an electric generator used to generate electricity and power an external fuel pump.By using a monopropellant decomposed over a catalyst pack only one fluid can be used to drive one or more turbines. Typically, a turbopump combusts a fuel and an oxidizernbsp;in a gas generator to generate the gases to drive the turbine. This requires two sets of feed lines (one for fuel and one for oxidizer) and careful mixture ratio control so that the two combust at a ratio that does not yield such anbsp;high temperature that may destroy the turbine. If the mixture ratio is too close to the stoichiometric ratio it will be hot enough to damage the turbine. If it is too far away from the stoichiometric ratio it may not generate enough of the required gases to drive the turbine or even cease combustion (flame out). This problem does not exist with most monopropellants as their maximum decomposition temperature is about half that of modern turbojet engines. Thus, no exotic materials need to be used for the turbine.nbsp;The electric generator generates electricity to power an external fuel pump. This allows the pump for one propellant to be placed anywhere on the rocket engine that is desired and does not necessitate mounting it onto the turbopump itself. this greatly simplifies the plumbing of a rocket engine. It also allows the oxidizer and fuel pump to have different speeds so that the engine can change its mixture ratio in flight.nbsp;This turbopump is designed to be used with a rocket engine burning propellant combinations where one of the propellants is a monopropellant. This allows for a relatively simple yet fairly high performing rocket engine. In addition, it can easily change its mixture ratio in flight for optimum propellant utilization and little waste.nbsp;