• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.19 no.2
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• pp.65-72
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• 2015

Performance tests of a turbopump for the developing 7-tonf liquid rocket engine were conducted. The performance of turbopump components and their power matching were measured and examined firstly under the LN2 and water environment. In the real propellant(LOX and kerosene) environment tests, design and off-design performances of turbopump were fully verified. During the off-design tests, turbopump running time was set the same as engine operating time and pump inlet pressure were set lower than nominal operating value in order to investigate pump suction capability. It have been verified that subject turbopump satisfies required performance - flow rate, head, suction performance and operational time - in the operating regime of developing liquid rocket engine.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.20 no.4
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• pp.177-182
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• 2004

In a turbopump cryogenic ball bearings are used to carry static and hydraulic loads, and these ball bearings must stand up to high load and speed in cryogenic circumstance. Verification of bearing performance is crucial to successful development of a turbopump. In this paper, focusing on the turbopump under developing by KARI, the performances of 203 and 207 bearings are verified through the series of tests simulating the real operating condition of turbopump.

• KSTLE International Journal
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.11-15
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• 2007

The mechanical face seal has been tested in Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARl) for turbopump applications. In the turbopump under current development, the mechanical face seal is installed between fuel pump and turbine to prevent a mixture of fuel and combustion gas. Generally the mechanical face seal in turbopump is exposed to severe environment because of great rotational speed, high temperature of combustion gas and high level of pressure difference. Thus a series of tests were performed to guarantee the reliability of mechanical face seal by means of simulating the practical operating conditions. The tests were conducted up to 20,000 rpm with pressure difference of 800 kPa and temperature of 620 K In addition several carbon materials for mechanical face seal were conducted to the tests to compare the life time. During the tests, the performance against leakage was monitored and the carbon wear was also measured to estimate the life of a mechanical face seal The results show that the leakage flow rates of mechanical face seal is ignorable compared to an overall flow rate of fuel pump. The carbon material which has the finest wear resistance was found during the tests. Lastly no critical failure of mechanical face seal was found during the tests and the reliability of mechanical face seal for turbopump was successfully proved.

• The KSFM Journal of Fluid Machinery
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• v.9 no.2 s.35
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• pp.39-43
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• 2006

The magnitude of the axial force acting on turbopump bearings has a great influence on the operational reliability and service life of a turbopump. In the turbopump under current investigation the cavity vanes are introduced to the pump shroud casing to control the axial thrust of the turbopump. To investigate the effect of the cavity vanes, 3D computational flow analyses for a propellant pump stage including an inducer, impeller, volute and secondary flow passages are performed with and without the vanes. The results show that the cavity vanes are very effective in reducing the magnitude of axial thrust without notable changes on the overall performance of the turbopump.

• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.33 no.12
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• pp.933-938
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• 2009

Hot test of a full-scale turbopump for a 30-ton-thrust liquid rocket engine was carried out. The turbopump is composed of an oxidizer pump, a fuel pump, and a turbine on a single shaft. Model fluid was used in the test, that is, hot air for the turbine and water for the pumps. The turbopump was operated stably at full speed for 120 seconds. In terms of performance characteristics of pumps and turbine, the results from the turbopump assembly test are compared with those from the turbopump component tests which were performed at about half of the design rotational speed.

• 유체기계공업학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2005.12a
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• pp.354-358
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• 2005

The magnitude of the axial force acting on turbopump bearings has a great influence on the operational reliability and service life of a turbopump. In the turbopump under current investigation the cavity vanes are introduced to the pump shroud casing to control the axial thrust of the turbopump. To investigate the effect of the cavity vanes, 3D computational flow analyses for a propellant pump stage including an inducer, impeller, volute and secondary flow passages are performed with and without the vanes. The results show that the cavity vanes are very effective in reducing the magnitude of axial thrust without notable changes on the overall performance of the turbopump.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.27 no.1
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• pp.25-33
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• 2011

Rolling contact ball bearings are utilized almost exclusively for liquid propellant rocket engine turbopump. Turbopump ball bearings are required to endure high speed and high load for a poor lubricated condition in cryogenic environment. To evaluate bearing heat generation performance, friction torque is investigated as a function of rotation speed, bearing load and cooling flow rate through an experimental study using water coolants. Radial and axial loads are simultaneously applied to the test bearing by gas pressurized cylinder rod. Endurance performance of bearing has been also verified under the bearing required load for operating condition during total accumulated test time 2,100 sec.

• Tribology and Lubricants
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• v.25 no.3
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• pp.187-191
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• 2009

A leakage performance test and an endurance performance test of a 75 ton class turbopump mechanical face seal are performed using water under high speed and high temperature environment. A prototype mechanical face seal is manufactured for the purpose of sealing of fuel between a fuel pump and turbine. By simulating operating condition experimentally, the leakage rate and seal carbon wear rate are obtained to evaluate the performance of the prototype mechanical face seal. The test results show the acceptable leakage performance and reasonable wear tendency as well.

• 유체기계공업학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2003.12a
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• pp.346-352
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• 2003

The study was performed to search on alternative material for turbopump parts made of Russian material by analyzing and comparing chemical and mechanical material properties. Iron base material was generally used for turbopump. This material can be categorized into stainless steel and heat resisting steel by quantity of additional elements. Each steel was also classified into austenite steel, ferrite steel, and martensite steel. Alternative materials for turbopump inducer, impeller and casing are chosen by JIS SUS 631 and 321 as a result of this study. Because the material of Russian turbopump turbine may be developed by Russia itself, alternative material can be hardly found. However, Inconel 718 for turbine material is thought to be proper in the aspect of hardness considering general use of this material for turbopump turbine in Japan and France.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2008.03a
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• pp.403-406
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• 2008

The performance of an entire pump system composed of an inducer, an impeller, a volute and seals has been computationally analyzed. A commercial three dimensional Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes method is used in this study. The axial thrust is predicted from the pump calculation in its entirety, which is necessary for such estimation. Moreover, the effects of each component on the pump performance are investigated at a design condition through the analysis of flow structures. The predicted performance is in good agreement with experimental data in terms of head rise, efficiency and volute wall pressure distributions despite of highly complex flow structures being present. The computational results also show that the axial and radial thrusts are within the design limit although corresponding experimental measurements were not taken.