Rocket engine

A rocket engine uses stored rocket propellants as the reaction mass for forming a high-speed propulsive jet of fluid, usually high-temperature gas. Rocket engines are reaction engines, producing thrust by ejecting mass rearward, in accordance with Newton's third law. Most rocket engines use the combustion of reactive chemicals to supply the necessary energy, but non-combusting forms such as cold gas thrusters and nuclear thermal rockets also exist. Vehicles propelled by rocket engines are commonly called rockets. Rocket vehicles carry their own oxidiser, unlike most combustion engines, so rocket engines can be used in a vacuum to propel spacecraft and ballistic missiles. Compared to other types of jet engine, rocket engines are the lightest and have the highest thrust, but are the least propellant-efficient (they have the lowest specific impulse). The ideal exhaust is hydrogen, the lightest of all elements, but chemical rockets produce a mix of heavier species, reducing the exhaust

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Electron flux and pressure dynamic in the LHC vacuum pilot sector as a function of beam parameters and beam pipe properties

Vincent Baglin, Elena Buratin, Ambrogio Fasoli

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is affected by the electron cloud (EC) phenomenon that can provoke beam instabilities, detrimental heat loads and pressure increases in the vacuum system. An innovative dedicated system called vacuum pilot sector (VPS) provides a continuous monitoring of the electron flux and of the pressure signals thanks to electron pickup and vacuum gauges. The VPS system is installed in a room temperature, field-free part of the LHC storage ring. Several technical surfaces, such as ex situ nonevaporable getter (NEG), amorphous carbon coating and copper, are simultaneously tested. The main outcomes of this study show that the EC signals have: (1) a linear dependence upon the number of bunches and upon the bunch population in the multipacting regime, (2) a multipacting threshold at a given bunch population, (3) a reduction under beam conditioning, (4) a strong dependence on the filling pattern and beam energy. The comparison between different surfaces shows that amorphous carbon coating reduces drastically the EC buildup, thanks to its low secondary electron yield (SEY) and photoelectron yield (PY), while copper and ex situ NEG coated surfaces suffer of EC multipacting, even after several months of operation. The multipacting rate coefficients are higher for copper than for ex situ NEG, as predicted from the SEY estimation. Other detailed experimental observations are discussed in this paper.

AMER PHYSICAL SOC2020

Turbulence in cooling channels of rocket engines: Large Eddy Simulations

The aim of this Note is to predict by means of large eddy simulations the three-dimensional structures and secondary mass and heat fluxes which develop within a heated curved duct, for applications to rocket engines cooling channels. We show the existence of unsteady Görtler-type vortices above the concave wall, as well as intense secondary vortices taking the shape of two quasi-steady counter-rotating cells of Ekman type close to the convex wall. These cells control heat exchanges. They induce ejections and sweeps close to the convex wall when it is heated. In this case the Nusselt number undergoes strong transverse fluctuations which might induce material alterations.

2005

Simulation des Grandes Echelles d’un écoulement en conduite carrée courbe

The investigation of flows in non-circular ducts of various sectional shape is of considerable engineering interest. In this paper, we perform simulations of the turbulent compressible flow in a duct of square cross section with streamwise curvature. The aim is to predict, by Large Eddy Simulation (L.E.S), the three-dimensional structures which develop inside the cooling channels of rocket engines and which are responsible for most of the heat transfer with the heated wall. Three simulations are performed : the first one with the same temperature on the four walls, the others with a higher temperature on the concave wall or on the convex wall. For the curved duct configuration, a centrifugal instability appears on the concave wall generating two longitudinal vortices which move towards the convex wall further downstream. These simulations allow for the evaluation of the impact of these structures on the heat transfert and reciprocally.

2003

EE-582: Lessons learned from the space exploration

The objective of the course is to present with different viewpoints, the lessons learned which lead to the decisions in the space exploration and their consequences today and for the decades to come. A semester continuous evaluation is done through a project (see below).

ME-201: Continuum mechanics

Continuum conservation laws (e.g. mass, momentum and energy) will be introduced. Mathematical tools, including basic algebra and calculus of vectors and Cartesian tensors will be taught. Stress and deformation tensors will be applied to examples drawn from linear elastic solid mechanics.

EE-584: Spacecraft design and system engineering

The main objective of the course is to introduce the concept of space system design and engineering. The course will describe the various subsystems involved in the design of a satellite. It will also describe the techniques of systems engineering that are used to obtain a coherent satellite design.

Liquid-propellant rocket

A liquid-propellant rocket or liquid rocket utilizes a rocket engine that uses liquid propellants. Gaseous propellants may also be used but are not common because of their low density and difficulty

Rocket

A rocket (from ) is a vehicle that uses jet propulsion to accelerate without using the surrounding air. A rocket engine produces thrust by reaction to exhaust expelled at high speed. Rocket engines w

Spacecraft propulsion

Spacecraft propulsion is any method used to accelerate spacecraft and artificial satellites. In-space propulsion exclusively deals with propulsion systems used in the vacuum of space and should not