Two-phase flow characteristics of liquid oxygen flow in low pressure liquid rocket engine

Abstract

In most cryogenic liquid rocket engines, liquid oxygen manifold and injector are not thermally insulated from room temperature environment for the purpose of reducing system complexity and weight. This feature of cryogenic liquid supply system results in the situation that liquid oxygen flow is vaporized especially in the vicinity of the manifold and the injector wall. The transient two-phase flow tendency is severe for low combustion pressure rocket engine without using turbo-pump. This paper focuses on the two-phase flow phenomena of liquid oxygen in low combustion pressure rocket engine. The KSR-III (Korea Sounding Rocket) engine test data is thoroughly analyzed to estimate the vapor fraction of liquid oxygen flow near the engine manifold and the injector. During the cold flow and the combustion tests of the KSR-III Engine, the static and dynamic pressures are measured at the engine inlet, the liquid oxygen manifold and the combustion chamber. The manifold outer wall and the inner wall temperatures are also measured. In this paper, we present the experimental investigation on the vapor generation, the vapor mass fraction, and the boiling characteristics of the liquid oxygen flow in the engine manifold and injector.