Experimental research on the development of an “oxygen (gas) + kerosene” – fueled thruster

Abstract

The results of experimental studies of a rocket engine fueled by gaseous oxygen-kerosene with a thrust of 20N, with four workflow variants are presented. The first version of the engine with the UVK-1 chamber demonstrated low energy characteristics, there were misfires. The engine with the UVK-2 chamber differed from the UVK-1 in that the fuel injector had a large geometric characteristic due to the increased diameter of its nozzle. The UVK2 provided stable start without misfiring and slightly improved energy characteristics. In the UVK-3 version, the energy characteristics were improved by decreasing the proportion of the oxidizer supplied to the curtain of internal cooling. The increase in the length of the cylindrical part of the combustion chamber (variant UVK-4) did not lead to the expected increase in energy characteristics. This is probably due to the peculiarity of the location of the cooling curtain assembly. In the course of research it was also found that the parameters of the igniter electric discharge have a significant influence on the nature of the chamber working process during the starting period. It is expedient to search for ways of further improving the energy characteristics in the direction of reducing the oxygen flow to the cooling curtain in the UVK-3 version with the nozzle material replaced by Nb5V2MC.