<p>  </p> <p>High altitude test facilities are needed for ground testing of upper stage rocket engines or small satellite thrusters with high expansion ratio nozzles to ensure full-flowing nozzle conditions. Rocket exhaust diffusers and ejector systems are essential components of these facilities and are frequently used to set desired simulated altitude/low pressure conditions and pump out rocket exhaust products. </p> <p>This dissertation combined experimental and numerical efforts on diffuser-ejector systems. The experimental efforts included the development of a Second Throat Exhaust Diffuser (STED) to aid with the qualification of space thrusters in the Purdue Altitude Chamber Facility. While performing these experiments, we characterized the single and two-stage ejector systems operating in conjunction with the diffuser to obtain and maintain specific simulated altitudes. </p> <p>The concurrent numerical effort focused on validating a Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) approach based on Reynolds-averaged Navier–Stokes equations flow simulations. After validating the ejector CFD, we used it to derive a corrective coefficient of a lumped parameter ejector model (LPM) developed previously for the ejectors used in the Purdue Altitude Facility. We created variable coefficient maps for the stages of the two-stage ejector system using the same LPM and the test data from one of our experiments. </p> <p>We designed, manufactured, and then validated a STED for altitude testing of a ~50 lbf hypergolic hybrid motor as a part of a NASA JPL project. The designed STED enabled the operation of the hybrid motor for the full duration of the test firing (about 2 seconds) at a simulated altitude of 102,000 feet, slightly above the targeted altitude of 100,000 feet. We also validated our diffuser CFD approach by creating a simulation using the measured diffuser back pressure and the average motor chamber pressure. </p> <p>We then devised an experiment to investigate several diffuser–ejector system configurations using cold gas thrusters with conical and bell nozzles. The main aim of that experiment was to explore the effects of different thruster nozzle geometries, diffuser geometries, and thruster/ejector operational parameters on the performance of a diffuser–ejector system. For all the configurations tested, we reported on the minimum starting and operating pressure ratios and corresponding correction factors on the normal shock method. The large hysteresis regions obtained mostly with bell nozzles having a high initial expansion angle provided an opportunity to economize the facility resources. In some cases which were later found to violate STED second throat contraction limits, we experienced a choking flow at the second throat. Then, we studied the second throat contraction limits in detail using CFD in addition to the experimental data and explored minimum diffuser second throats enabling diffuser starting and improving aerodynamic efficiency. </p> <p>Finally, we machined a larger scale cold gas thruster with different nozzle geometries (having throat diameters in the range of 0.367 – 0.52 inches) from acrylic rods to study possible flow separation and gas condensation events that could occur during tests in the altitude chamber. The main difference here with the previous experiment was that the diffuser (JPL STED) was fixed, and the two-stage ejector system was used to create the necessary back pressure. With the experiments performed at varying axial gaps between the nozzle exit and diffuser inlet, we were able to investigate the effect of that on the diffuser performance. The experimental data collected in this work and the complementary numerical efforts served to generate the operating envelope of the Purdue Altitude Chamber Facility.  </p>

The work presented in this thesis deals with the application of optimization tools to the design of solid rocket motor grains per internal ballistic requirements. Research concentrated on the development of an optimization strategy capable of efficiently and consistently optimizing virtually an unlimited range of radial burning solid rocket motor grain geometries. Optimization tools were applied to the design process of solid rocket motor grains through an optimization framework developed to interface optimization tools with the solid rocket motor design system. This was done within a programming architecture common to the grain design system, AML. This commonality in conjunction with the object-oriented dependency-tracking features of this programming architecture were used to reduce the computational time of the design optimization process. The optimization strategy developed for optimizing solid rocket motor grain geometries was called the internal ballistic optimization strategy. This strategy consists of a three stage optimization process; approximation, global optimization, and highfidelity optimization, and optimization methodologies employed include DOE, genetic algorithms, and the BFGS first-order gradient-based algorithm. This strategy was successfully applied to the design of three solid rocket motor grains of varying complexity. The contributions of this work was the development and application of an optimization strategy to the design process of solid rocket motor grains per internal ballistic requirements.

Performance characterization was undertaken for an air augmented rocket mixing duct with annular cavity configurations intended to produce thrust augmentation. Three mixing duct geometries and a fully annular cavity at the exit of the nozzle were tested to enable thrust comparisons. The rocket engine used liquid ethanol and gaseous oxygen, and was instrumented with sensors to output total thrust, mixing duct thrust, combustion chamber pressure, and propellant differential pressures across Venturi flow measurement tubes. The rocket engine was tested to thrust maximum, with three different mixing ducts, three major combustion pressure sets, and a nozzle exit plane annular cavity (a grooved ring). The combustion pressures tested were , , and allowing for a nozzle pressure ratio range of relative to ambient pressure. The mixture ratio was fuel rich throughout all tests. The engine operated very consistently throughout all the tests performed; however, pressure losses in the feed system prevented higher combustion pressures from being tested. Three mixing ducts of the same outer diameter were tested. The short and diverging ducts were the same length and the long duct was long. The short and long ducts created positive mixing duct thrust and the diverging duct created negative mixing duct thrust. The long duct case did show better performance than the no duct case when the total thrust was divided by combustion pressure and nozzle throat area. The long duct always created several times more mixing duct thrust than either the short or diverging ducts, but none of the mixing ducts created positive overall thrust augmentation in the over expanded cases tested. The mixing duct thrusts ranged between and . As the combustion pressures were increased, getting closer the nozzle’s optimal expansion, the mixing duct thrusts started converging indicating a difference between nozzle operation at over expanded and under expanded. The annular cavity had a noticeable effect on the thrust of the engine and the appearance of the plume. The total thrust of the system was decreased by a maximum of and the plume was more sharply defined when the annular cavity was attached. Better mixing between the primary (engine exhaust) flow and the secondary (ambient air) flow was promoted by the annular cavity because it increased the shear layer’s turbulence and the increased turbulence reduced thrust. The greater mixing also allowed for secondary combustion which made the plumes more sharply defined. The annular cavity was also seen to enhance the mixing duct thrusts for all three mixing ducts.

The development of innovative propulsion systems requires testing in suitable facilities that reveal the efficacy of design models and allow for design refinement. The qualification process starts from ground tests and ends in vacuum chambers. The aim of this project is to design a versatile space propulsion facility capable of hosting different rocket engine architectures and providing an adequate supply line for different types of oxidizers and fuels in gaseous form. Identifying the key and critical components and implementing such components for the development of the facility and study the state of the art on safety standards and good practices for rocket engine testing. The test bed should be designed to withstand the structural stresses generated by the engine during static tests, while the supply line system should provide the mass flow required by the engine to deliver the design thrust (maximum thrust of 5kN). In this project, different types of rocket engines and their testing, fuel and oxidizers feed supply, risks involved and safety precautions in working of rocket test facilities are studied. A list of components for the development of such a rocket test facility and design of a logical layout plan consisting of various critical components for the propellant and oxidizer feed system is carried out. A total budget for the rocket test facility by evaluating the costs of various high quality and reliable components involved is produced. By accommodating different rocket architectures to withstand a maximum load of 5kN, an efficient design of the rocket test bed was realized and a static structural analysis of the same was performed that suffice for the objectives of the project.

The increasing market of small and affordable space systems requires fast and reliablelaunch capabilities to cover the current and future demand. This project aims to studyand implement guidance and control schemes for vertical ascent and descent phases ofa reusable launcher. Specifically, the thesis focuses on developing and applying ModelPredictive Control (MPC) and optimisation techniques to several kino-dynamic modelsof rockets. Moreover, the classical MPC method has been modified to include a decreasingfactor for the horizon used, enhancing the performance of the guidance and control.Multiple scenarios of vertical launch, landing and full fligth guidance on Earth and Mars,along with Monte Carlo analysis, were carried out to demonstrate the robustness of thealgorithm against different initial conditions. The results were promising and invite tofurther research.

There has recently been an increased interest in methane as a rocket propellant due to its physical properties as well as the possibility of in-situ resource utilization in places like Mars. As part of ESA’s Future Launcher Preparatory Program, KTH in cooperation with GKN Aerospace has started the MERiT program, which seeks to study the characteristics of methane under conditions found in rocket nozzle cooling channels. In particular, the current work examines the influence of different wall temperatures, fluid flow rates, and fluid residence times on methane pyrolysis due to the catalytic properties of nickel based metals. Pyrolysis is the thermo-catalytic decomposition of methane, which results in the creation of hydrogen and solid carbon in the cooling channels. This can affect the performance of the rocket engine, the cooling channels, as well as the lifespan of the engine, which makes the process important to quantify when designing highly reusable engines. A chemical kinetics computer model has been developed, which has been used to quantify the most important parameters for methane pyrolysis. Based on these results, a small-scale pyrolysis experimental setup has been developed and used to characterise methane pyrolysis for different material temperatures and gas flow rates. The experimental setup has been proven to work and consistently provide pyrolysis at temperatures between 600 ◦C to 700 ◦C, although more work on the data collection side, in particular with regards to a gas chromatograph and a scanning electron microscope, is required to quantify and compare different experiments.

Conjugate heat transfer analysis has been carried out on an 89kN thrust chamber in order to evaluate whether combined discrete film cooling and regenerative cooling in a rocket nozzle is feasible. Several cooling configurations were tested against a baseline design of regenerative cooling only. New designs include combined cooling channels with one row of discrete film cooling holes near the throat of the nozzle, and turbulated cooling channels combined with a row of discrete film cooling holes. Blowing ratio and channel mass flow rate were both varied for each design. The effectiveness of each configuration was measured via the maximum hot gas-side nozzle wall temperature, which can be correlated to number of cycles to failure. A target maximum temperature of 613K was chosen. Combined film and regenerative cooling, when compared to the baseline regenerative cooling, reduced the hot gas side wall temperature from 667K to 638K. After adding turbulators to the cooling channels, combined film and regenerative cooling reduced the temperature to 592K. Analysis shows that combined regenerative and film cooling is feasible with significant consequences, however further improvements are possible with the use of turbulators in the regenerative cooling channels.

Earlier research has demonstrated that downstream of combustion in a rotating detonation engine, exhaust flow periodically reverses circumferential direction. For small periods, the circumferential flow reaches velocity magnitudes rivaling the bulk flow of exhaust, manifesting as a swirl. The minimization of this swirl is critical to maximizing thrust and engine performance for rocket propulsion. During this study, numerous nozzle contours were iteratively designed and analyzed for losses analytically. Once a nozzle was chosen, further losses were validated through computational fluid dynamics simulations and then tested experimentally. Three different configurations were run with the RDRE: no nozzle, a nozzle without a spike, and a nozzle with a spike. Images of the exhaust quality were recorded using OH* chemiluminescence in high-speed cameras. One camera was used to confirm the existence of a detonation and the frequency of detonation. The second camera is pointed perpendicular to the exhaust flow to capture the quality of exhaust. Quantitative results of the turbulent velocity fluctuations were obtained through particle image velocimetry of the side-imaging frames. All frames in each case were exported and converted to several time-averaged frames whereupon the time-averaged turbulent velocity fluctuation profiles could be compared between cases for swirl attenuation.

No description available.

With the continuous growth of the space industry and the introduction of reusable rockets, the number of rocket launches is expected to increase significantly in the following years. During rocket launching, the engine exhaust impinges on the launch structure producing a complex flow field. The rocket jet induces large thermoaerodynamic and acoustic loads on the launch structures and the rocket. This thesis aims to study the physics and numerical considerations behind supersonic flows exhausted from rocket engines. First, the treatment of turbulent compressible flows through the Favre-averaged equations and the SST k-ω model are studied. Next, the numerical modeling of the problem, including solver and meshing theory is presented. Then, a model of a nozzle is explained along with how the performance is assessed to finally design a M=3 two-dimensional nozzle using the method of characteristics (MOC). The two-dimensional results are validated using Ansys Fluent, and the same geometry is used for the following axisymmetrical problems, which include the study of a free and impinging jet. The free jet problem serves to study how the nozzle behaves in a two-dimensional axisymmetric problem and to validate the impinging jet results. To obtain the results, RANS-based simulations of a cold, over-expanded jet with adiabatic walls are performed. Empirical formulas were used to verify the results. Lastly, the impinging jet problem is simulated using the same inlet boundary conditions as for the free jet. The impact that the plate distance to the exit of the nozzle has on the position of the shock waves when the jet impinges on the flat surface is assessed. Finally, an optimization of the shape of a wedge to minimize the maximum turbulence kinetic energy produced during steady-state simulation is carried out. As an appendix to the work, an aeroacoustic study of the impinging jet at 4De distance is presented. The results show the direction of propagation of the acoustic waves but due to the lack of acoustic quality of the mesh, the predicted sound pressure levels do not match the expected behavior.