Experimental study on vortex-cooled thrust chamber

The vortex-cooled thrust chamber is an alternative cooling approach that can potentially offer additional benefits and design flexibility for liquid propellant thrust chambers. Based on the theoretical analysis and numerical simulation, a vortex-cooled thrust chamber for experiment using GH₂/GO₂ was designed. Cold flow and hot-fire tests were conducted. Without using other cooling methods, a 20-second hot-fire test was accomplished. The results of the investigation indicate that the vortex-cooled thrust chamber operates in steady-state and the GO₂ forms the effective cooling vortex. The temperature increase of exterior surface of the chamber wall is 5 K. In addition, the nozzle is protected effectively by cold gas film introduced by a portion of GO₂.