Dynamic interaction between clustered liquid propellant rocket engines under their asynchronous start-ups

A nonlinear mathematical model of the low-frequency dynamics of the clustered multi-engine rocket propulsion system has been developed and the computations of the engine transient processes during the start-ups of the four-engine propulsion system with a shared feed system have been made applied.Based on propulsion system start-up modeling the influence of the connectivity of engines in a cluster on the starting characteristics of individual engines is shown.In particular,an advanced nonlinear mathematical model of the pump cavitation phenomena is a distinctive feature of the mathematical model.The computation results showed that the asynchronous engines start-ups during rocket lift-off lead to severely nonlinear engine transients and clustered engine thrust misbalance.The influence of the rocket engines asynchronous start-ups on the clustered feed system transients depends on many factors,mainly on from the clustered feed system low-frequency dynamics,the magnitude of the disturbance and the phase difference between disturbances acting on different branches of the feed system.The deep lingering dips in the flow rate and pressure transients are possible due to the nonlinear dynamic interaction of the engines.In case of great pressure dips at the pump inlet(up to the pressure of saturated vapors during significant periods of start-up time)the cavitation breakdowns of the pumps of one or more engines from the cluster are possible.This can disrupt the operation of the entire propulsion system and leads to the failure of the launch vehicle mission.

空化诱导轮内流动不稳定性的最大似然估

The article illustrates the application of Bayesian estimation to the identification of flow instabilities,with special reference to rotating cavitation,in a three-bladed axial inducer using the unsteady pressure readings of a single transducer mounted on the casing just behind the leading edges of the impeller blades.The typical trapezoidal pressure distribution in the blade channels is parametrized and modulated in time and space for theoretically reproducing the expected pressure generated by known forms of cavitation instabilities(cavitation auto-oscillations and higher-order surge cavitation modes,n-lobed subsynchronous/synchronous/super-synchronous rotating cavitation).The Fourier spectra of the theoretical pressure so obtained in the rotating frame are transformed in the stationary frame,frequency broadened to better approximate the experimental results,and parametrically fitted by maximum likelihood estimation to the measured auto-correlation spectra.Each form of instability generates a characteristic distribution of sidebands in addition to its fundamental frequency.The identification makes use of this information for effective detection and characterization of multiple simultaneous flow instabilities with intensities spanning over about 20 db down to about 4 db signal-to-noise ratios.The same information also allows for effectively bypassing the aliasing limitations of traditional cross-correlation methods in the discrimination of multiple-lobed azimuthal instabilities from the measurements returned by arrays of equally spaced sensors.The method returns both the estimates of the model parameters and their standard deviations,providing the information needed for the assessment of the statistical significance of the results.The proposed approach represents therefore a promising tool for experimental research on flow instabilities in high-performance turbopumps.

Chebyshev super spectral viscosity method for water hammer analysis

In this paper,a new fast and efficient algorithm,Chebyshev super spectral viscosity(SSV)method,is introduced to solve the water hammer equations.Compared with standard spectral method,the method's advantage essentially consists in adding a super spectral viscosity to the equations for the high wave numbers of the numerical solution.It can stabilize the numerical oscillation(Gibbs phenomenon)and improve the computational efficiency while discontinuities appear in the solution.Results obtained from the Chebyshev super spectral viscosity method exhibit greater consistency with conventional water hammer calculations.It shows that this new numerical method offers an altemative way to investigate the behavior of the water hammer in propellant pipelines.

Numerical investigation of low cycle fatigue life for channel wall nozzles

The thermal-structural response and low cycle fatigue life of a three-dimensional(3D)channel wall nozzle with regenerative cooling were numerically investigated by coupling the finite volume fluid-thermal method,nonlinear finite element thermal-structural analysis and local strain methods.The nozzle had a high area ratio(nozzle exit area divided by throat area)under cyclic working loads.Parametric studies were carried out to evaluate the effects of channel structural parameters such as channel width,channel height,liner thickness and rib width.Results showed that the integrated effects of three-dimensional channel structure and load distribution caused serious strain,which mainly occurred at the intersectant regions of liner wall on the gas side and the symmetric planes of channel and rib.The cooling effect and channel structural strength were significantly improved as the channel width and height decreased,leading to substantial extension of the nozzle service life.On the other hand,the successive decrease in liner thickness and rib width apparently increased the strain amplitude and residual strain of channel wall nozzle during cyclic work,significantly shortening the service life.The present work is of value for design of the channel wall nozzle to prolong its cyclic service life.