Technology developments for thrust chambers of future launch vehicle liquid rocket engines

paper an overview of recent technology developments for thrust chambers of future launch vehicle liquid rocket engines at Astrium, Space Infrastructure Division (SI), is shown. The main technology developments shown in this paper are: Technologies for enhanced heat transfer to the coolant for expander cycle engines Advanced injector head technologies Advanced combustion chamber manufacturing technologies. The main technologies for enhanced heat transfer investigated by subscale chamber hot-firing tests are: Increase of chamber length Hot gas side ribs in the chamber Artificially increased surface roughness. The developments for advanced injector head technologies were focused on the design of a new modular subscale chamber injector head. This injector head allows for an easy exchange of different injection elements. By this, cost effective hot-fire tests with different injection element concepts can be performed. The developments for advanced combustion chamber manufacturing technologies are based on subscale chamber tests with a new design of the Astrium subscale chamber. The subscale chamber has been modified by introduction of a segmented cooled cylindrical section which gives the possibility to test different manufacturing concepts for cooled chamber technologies by exchanging the individual segments. The main technology efforts versus advanced manufacturing technologies shown in this paper are: Soldering techniques Thermal barrier coatings for increased chamber life. A new technology effort is dedicated especially to LOX/Hydrocarbon propellant combinations. Recent hot fire tests on the subscale chamber with Kerosene and Methane as fuel have already been performed. A comprehensive engine system trade-off between the both propellant combinations (Kerosene vs. Methane) is presently under preparation. (C) 2003 Published by Elsevier Science Ltd.