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Influence of hydrogen temperature on the stability of a rocket engine combustor operated with hydrogen and oxygen

A new hydrogen temperature ramping experiment

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Abstract

Since the late 1960s, low hydrogen injection temperature is known to have a destabilising effect on rocket engines with the propellant combination hydrogen/oxygen. Self-excited combustion instabilities of the first tangential mode have been found recently in a research rocket combustor operated with the propellant combination hydrogen/oxygen with a hydrogen temperature of 95 K. A hydrogen temperature ramping experiment has been performed with this research combustor to analyse the impact of hydrogen temperature on the self-excited combustion instabilities. The temperature was varied between 40 and 135 K. Contrary to past results found in literature, the combustor was found to be stable at low hydrogen temperatures while increased oscillation amplitudes of the first tangential mode were found at higher temperatures of around 100 K and above, which is consistent with previous observations of instabilities in this combustor. Further analysis shows that hydrogen temperature has a strong impact on the combustion chamber resonance frequencies. By varying the hydrogen injection temperature, the frequency of the first tangential mode is shifted to coincide with the second longitudinal resonance frequency of the liquid oxygen injector. Excitation of combustion chamber pressure oscillations was observed during such events.

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Acknowledgments

Research undertaken for this paper has been assisted with financial support from the DFG (German Research Foundation) in the framework of the SFB-TR 40. The authors are grateful to the crew of the P8 test bench as well as Philipp Groß and Mike Ziemßen for their efforts in performing the test runs on which the results presented here are based. Furthermore, the efforts of Joachim Sender concerning the design of the BKD combustor are gratefully acknowledged.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Institute of Space Propulsion, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Im Langen Grund, 74239, Hardthausen, Germany

    Stefan Gröning, Justin Hardi, Dmitry Suslov & Michael Oschwald

  2. Institute of Jet Propulsion and Turbomachinery, RWTH Aachen University, Templergraben 55, 52062, Aachen, Germany

    Michael Oschwald

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  1. Stefan Gröning
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  2. Justin Hardi
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  3. Dmitry Suslov
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  4. Michael Oschwald
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Correspondence to Stefan Gröning.

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This paper is based on a presentation at the Space Propulsion Conference, May 19–22, 2014, Cologne, Germany.

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Gröning, S., Hardi, J., Suslov, D. et al. Influence of hydrogen temperature on the stability of a rocket engine combustor operated with hydrogen and oxygen. CEAS Space J 9, 59–76 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12567-016-0130-8

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