COOLING IN LIQUID

ROCKETS
By
Nakul deshmukh
COOLING OF THRUST CHAMBERS

 The primary objective of cooling is to prevent the

chamber and nozzle walls from becoming too hot,
so they will no longer be able to withstand the
imposed stresses, thus causing the chamber or
nozzle wall to fail.
COOLING METHODS

Steady state method

Transient or unsteady state heat
transfer method
Supplementary techniques
Steady state method includes
- Regenerative cooling
- Radiation cooling
 Unsteady heat transfer method
 Supplementary techniques include
- Film cooling
- Special or thermal insulation
STEADY STATE METHOD
 HEAT TRANSFER RATE AND THE
TEMPERATURES OF THE CHAMBERS REACH
THERMAL EQUILIBRIUM

 DURATION OF COOLING IS LIMITED ONLY BY

THE AVAILABLE SUPPLY OF PROPELLANT

 Internal cooling passages , cooling jackets , or

cooling coils permit the circulation of coolant
REGENERATIVE COOLING
 Done by building a cooling
jacket around the thrust
chamber and circulating one
of the liquid propellant through
it before it is fed to the injector.
 Here , the heat absorbed by
the coolant is not wasted ; it
augments the initial energy of
the propellant prior to injection
, increasing the exhaust
velocity.
DURING OPERATION, COOLANT FLOWS THROUGH
THESE CHANNELS TO COOL THE INNER LINER .
USES
 Used primarily with bipropellant
chambers of medium or high thrust.
 Has been effective in applications with
high chamber pressure and high heat
transfer rates.
 Most injectors use regenerative
cooling.
RADIATION COOLING
 Here the chamber or the nozzle wall has
only a single wall made of high temperature
material.
 When it reaches thermal equilibrium , this
wall usually glows red or white hot and
radiates heat away to the surroundings or to
empty space.
USES
 Itis simple and used extensively in the
low heat transfer applications.
 Used with monopropellant thrust
chambers, bipropellant and
monopropellant gas generators.
UNSTEADY HEAT TRANSFER
 Also called heat sink cooling.
 Thrust chamber does not reach a thermal
equilibrium, and temperatures continue to
increase with operating duration.
 Heat absorbing capacity of the hardware
determines its maximum duration.
 Uses ablative materials
SUPPLEMENTARY TECHNIQUES

 Filmcooling and special insulation are

techniques that are used occasionally with
both methods to locally augment their
cooling capability.
FILM COOLING
 It is a method of cooling whereby a relatively cool
thin fluid film covers and protects exposed wall
surfaces from excessive heat transfer.
 Film is introduced by injecting small quantities of
fuel at very low velocity through orifices.
 A coolant with high heat of vaporization and a high
boiling point is desirable.
THERMAL INSULATION
A good thermal insulation layer on the gas
side of the chamber wall can be very
effective in reducing chamber wall heat
transfer and wall temperatures.
 Insulation or heat shields have been
successfully applied on the thrust chambers.
QUERIES ?