• Journal of ILASS-Korea
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.126-131
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• 2020

Throttleable rocket engines are in high demand due to the diversification of space missions. Pintle injector is known to be suitable for throttleable rocket engines, because of its high efficiency in overall thrust zone. In this study, the relationship between spray angle of a throttleable pintle injector and total momentum ratio based on hot fire test conditions was investigated. As a result, the spray angle in 100% and 60% throttling level is higher than the spray angle obtained by the case which considers only propellant mass flow rate, owing to higher total momentum ratio (TMR). The results of this study may be useful for predicting spray angle in hot fire test.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.26 no.2
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• pp.60-71
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• 2022

The reusable, low-cost launch vehicle development trend in the recent launch vehicle market is being subdivided into several ways, and the throttleable engine is one of them. Plus, several nations have selected methane as a next-generation propellant due to its cleanness. In this research, a throttleable pintle injector using gas methane and liquid oxygen as propellants was developed, followed by its spray and combustion characteristics analysis, including high pressure cold and hot tests. The designed throttleable pintle injector has a double sleeve structure, and its tightness and functionality are confirmed through repetitive atmospheric, high-pressure cold tests, and hot tests. Though some design errors were discovered and a low throttling level was unable to be achieved in the combustion test.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.107-118
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• 2017

As the interest in lunar exploration increases, a throttleable engine is regarded as a important technology. Variable area injectors have been identified to be the most reliable throttling method. Pintle injector is a representative injector of the variable method. It has a simple design and inherent combustion stability. Therefore, it is necessary to research the pintle injector. The present study investigates the concept of the injector, the design factors, and the latest development trends for pintle injector design.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.22-30
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• 2011

There is a many way of LPRE throttling methods, high-pressure-drop systems, dual-manifold injector, gas injection, multiple chambers, pulse modulation and movable injector components. Especially dual-manifold injector is essentially combines two fixed-area injectors into a common structure, with independent feed systems controlling flow to each injector manifold. In this paper, using indirect photography and liquid film thickness measurement with various injection pressure and tangential entry diameter to decide stability of spray over a wide thrust range in dual manifold injector.

• International Journal of Aeronautical and Space Sciences
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• v.15 no.4
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• pp.444-453
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• 2014

A throttleable rocket engine enables operational possibilities such as the docking of spacecraft, maneuvering in a certain orbit and landing on a planet's surface, altitude control, and entrance to atmosphere-less planets. Thus, throttling methods have long been researched. However, dual-manifold injectors, which represent one throttling method, have been investigated less than others. In this study, dual-manifold and single-manifold injectors were compared to determine the characteristics of dual-manifold injectors. Also, the effects of gas injection were investigated with various F/O ratios. To investigate the characteristics, mass flow rate, spray pattern, spray angle, and droplet size were measured. The spray angle and droplet size were captured by indirect photography. About 30 images were taken to assess the spray patterns and spray angle. Also, 700 images were analyzed to understand the droplet distribution and targeting area, moving to the right from the centerline with 1.11-cm intervals. The droplet size was obtained from an image processing procedure. From the results, the spray angle showed two transition regions, due to swirl momentum in the swirl chamber regardless of the F/O ratio. The droplet size showed similar trends in both dual-manifold and single-manifold injectors except in the low mass flow rate region. In the case of the dual- manifold injector, the spray cone was not fully developed in the low mass flow rate region due to low angular momentum in the swirl chamber.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.43 no.10
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• pp.868-874
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• 2015

Thrust variation is an essential parameter in a space mission such as landing on an atmosphereless planet or docking a spacecraft. In order to achieve the thrust variation control, using throttleable injector is a representative and general method. A dual-manifold injector, one of throttleable injectors, was used to control mass flow rate. Five kinds of injectors were designed and investigated in order to compare the spray characteristics of the dual-manifold injector with various tangential entries. Spray angles and patterns were measured to determine external flow characteristics and film thicknesses were measured in order to investigate the internal flow patterns.

• Journal of ILASS-Korea
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• v.21 no.1
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• pp.13-19
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• 2016

Atmospheric spray characteristics were experimentally compared between liquid-gas and liquid-liquid sprays of a pintle injector. In order to study spray characteristics, water and air were used as the simulants and the visualization technic was adopted. Spray images were acquired by using a backlight method by a high-resolution CMOS camera. As a result, when the pintle opening distance increased, liquid sheets became unstabled and fluttering droplets increased. In the liquid-gas case, the breakup performance increased as the pressure of gas injected from the annular orifice increased. In the liquid-liquid case, atomization efficiency decreased as the pressure of liquid injected from the annular orifice increased. Spray angles presented a similar trend between two cases. At the same momentum ratio, the spray angle of liquid-liquid case was lower than the angle of liquid-gas case.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.25 no.4
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• pp.12-18
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• 2021

This study aimed at preparing the solid propellants featuring high pressure exponent available for throttleable rocket system development. The combustion properties of solid propellant based on PCP as a prepolymer were investigated with the different nitramine oxidizer, HMX and HNIW. As a main oxidizer, HNIW could deliver higher burning rate, specific impulse and flame temperature than HMX. In addition, the introduction of AP as a co-oxidizer in PCP/Nitramine propellants could enhance burning rate, specific impulse and flame temperature, showing the lower pressure exponent with increasing the content of fine-sized AP, total solids and plasticizer. Moreover, we examined the temperature sensitivity on burning rate of propellants between 150 psia and 2,500 psia.

• Journal of Aerospace System Engineering
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• v.15 no.3
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• pp.79-86
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• 2021

For a preliminary study on a thrust-throttleable Variable Flow Ducted Rocket, a gas generator and flow control valve were developed, and ground combustion tests were performed. The gas generator and flow control valve operated at the required performance level for parameters, such as heat-resistance, combustion-time, pressure, and temperature. The combustion characteristics of a fuel-rich solid propellant mixed with Boron/MgAl/AP, etc., were also analyzed. A Plunger-type flow control valve was designed to control the discharge flow area, and it was confirmed that the flow control valve was able to control the combustion gas flow rate and pressure. However, due to the reduction of the discharge flow area caused by adhesion of combustion products, the combustion pressure continuously increased. The analysis of the pressure increase is covered in Part 2 of this paper.