CONCEPTUAL REGENERATIVE NOZZLE COOLING DESIGN FOR A HYDROXYL-TERMINATED POLYBUTADIENE AND OXYGEN HYBRID ROCKET ENGINE

Regenerative rocket nozzle cooling technology is well developed for liquid fueled rocket engines, but the technology has yet to be widely applied to hybrid rockets. Liquid engines use fuel as coolant, and while the oxidizers typically used in hybrids are not as efficient at conducting heat, the increased renewability of a rocket using regenerative cycle should still make the technology attractive. Due to the high temperatures that permeate throughout a rocket nozzle, most nozzles are predisposed to ablation, supporting the need to implement a nozzle cooling system. This paper presents a proof-of-concept regenerative cooling system for a hybrid engine which uses hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene (HTPB) as its solid fuel and gaseous oxygen (02) as its oxidizer, whereby a portion of gaseous oxygen is injected directly into the combustion chamber and another portion is routed up through grooves on the exterior of a copper chromium nozzle and, afterwards, injected into the combustion chamber. Using 02 as a coolant will significantly lower the temperature of the nozzle which will prevent ablation due to the high temperatures produced by the exhaust. Additional advantages are an increase in combustion efficiency due to the heated 02 being used for combustion and an increased overall efficiency from the regenerative cycle. A computational model is presented, and several experiments are performed using computational fluid dynamics (CFD).