Design and Testing of a 25 N GCH4-GOX Thruster with Impinging Type Injector

Sectional CAD view & fabricated thruster.

Abstract

Methane-LOX based liquid rocket engines (LRE) posses numerous advantages compared to semi-cryogenic engines in terms of performance and reusability. The current study presents a comprehensive design, fabrication and testing of a 25 N gaseous methane (GCH4) and gaseous oxygen (GOX) based thruster as part of a graduate course. The design phase included the selection of materials, component sizing, and configuration of the combustion chamber, injector design, and nozzle sizing for optimal performance of the thruster. Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations and analytical modeling were used to iteratively refine the design parameters and predict the thruster's performance. Thermal management, structural integrity, and manufacturability were some of the key factors that were taken into account during the design phase. A thrust stand with a load cell was designed to characterize the thrust produced during a hot run. The experimental studies are being conducted at the Advanced Propulsion Research Laboratory (APRL) at the Department of Aerospace Engineering at IISc Bangalore. Multiple cold and hot tests were carried out to characterize the thruster performance. Thrust of 18.1 N was demonstrated in the hot test.


Gallery

Thruster mounted for static hot fire test.

Exit plume during hot fire test.


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