Turbine Performance Experiments for the Turbopump of a Liquid Rocket Engine

Abstract

This paper highlights the performance of an impulse turbine which is a part of turbopump in a liquid rocket first stage engine. The turbopump, currently under development at Korea Aerospace Research Institute, has an impulse type turbine with 12 nozzles and a single rotor. The impulse turbine can archive high specific power with the low gas flow rates. The supersonic impulse turbine with a single rotor can make a simple structure. High-pressure gases are converted into the dynamic energy with flows through the 12 nozzles and drive the rotor to make the power for the pumps. The turbine test was performed in the high-pressured turbine test facility with air gas instead of burned gas. A hydraulic dynamometer was used to absorb the power from the turbine and control the rotational speed and torque. The test points were at several pressure ratios with 7 different rotational speeds. Results showed the efficiency was highest at the design pressure ratio. The efficiency was insensitive to the pressure ratio variation than the rotational speed. It was a typical characteristic in an impulse turbine.