Increasing the specific impulse of an oxygen-hydrogen liquid rocket engine by increasing heat transfer in the combustion chamber

Liquid-propellant rocket engines (LPRE), operating according to a gas-free generator scheme, are used for the upper stages of launch vehicles and upper stages. In engines of this scheme, only cryogenic fuel is used, which provides a high engine STI. Also a distinctive feature is the absence of a gas generator, the combustion generators of which feed the turbine of the main turbopump unit. In the gas-free LPRE scheme, the turbine is driven by gas-return hydrogen heated in the cooling path. Therefore, the high parameters of the LRE, such as the pressure in the CC, the thrust of the engine and the specific thrust pulse depend on the effective heat removal from the firing wall of the combustion chamber and the intensification of heat exchange in the cooling path. There are a number of solutions that allow to increase the amount of heat transferred to the refrigerant in the inter-shirt space. Therefore, the search for an optimal cooling scheme and promising design solutions for the intensification of heat transfer in the engine cooling path will allow us to determine the high parameters of the LPRE. This article discusses the effect on the thermal state of the combustion chamber of the gas fins installed on the firing wall of the engine. Gas fins belong to the developed heat exchange surfaces and increase the area of the side surface of the combustion chamber. With the help of the developed mathematical model of the cooling chamber of a gas-free LRE, extremes in the intensification of heat exchange in the cooling path have been identified. The dependences of the specific thrust impulse of the engine on the pressure in the combustion chamber and the geometric dimensions of the engine are also obtained.