Propellant Management in Liquid Rockets and Space Vehicles

Abstract

With the progress of human activities in space, the occasion to handle liquids in non-uniform acceleration or low-gravity is now growing. On the launch vehicles with liquid propulsion system, the dynamic acceleration during its powered ascent or ballistic flight makes it very difficult to control the position of propellants in the tanks. For the establishment of the technology for the management of liquid propellant in space vehicles, a numerical method, called ‘CIP-LSM’ (CIP based Level Set & MARS), was developed to simulate three-dimensional free-surface flows under various gravity conditions, which has been applied to clarify the dynamic behavior of liquid propellant in the tanks of launch vehicles.