Design and analysis for reusable liquid rocket engine chamber

Investigations were carried out for reusable rocket engine chamber design under prescribed life constraint in this paper. Firstly, thermo-structure finite element analysis was conducted for a full cycle including pre-cooling, hot run, post-cooling and relaxation. Secondly, modified Porowski’s model was introduced for structure life estimation based on previous results. The key factors for chamber life design were further identified. Finally, response surface method was employed to get the approximation of the design space. Detail design results were obtained by considering the coolant channel pressure drop and life requirement. The results show that the cooling channel number and height-width ratio play the most important role in structure life design, and strong coupling relationship exists between these two parameters. Larger height-width ratio of the cool channel are both beneficial for the life of the chamber.