Liquid propellant rocket engines have propelled all the manned space flights, all the space vehicles flying to the planets or deep space, virtually all satellites, and the majority of medium range or intercontinental range ballistic missiles.

This book is intended for students and engineers who design and develop liquid-propellant rocket engines, offering them a guide to the theory and practice alike. It first presents the fundamental concepts (the generation of thrust, the gas flow through the combustion chamber and the nozzle, the liquid propellants used, and the combustion process) and then qualitatively and quantitatively describes the principal components involved (the combustion chamber, nozzle, feed systems, control systems, valves, propellant tanks, and interconnecting elements). The book includes extensive data on existing engines, typical values for design parameters, and worked-out examples of how the concepts discussed can be applied, helping readers integrate them in their own work. Detailed bibliographical references (including books, articles, and items from the “gray literature”) are provided at the end of each chapter, together with information on valuable resources that can be found online. Given its scope, the book will be of particular interest to undergraduate and graduate students of aerospace engineering.

Annotation Since the invention of the V-2 rocket during World War II, combustion instabilities have been recognized as one of the most difficult problems in the development of liquid propellant rocket engines. This book is the first published in the United States on the subject since NASA's Liquid Rocket Combustion Instability (NASA SP-194) in 1972. In this book, experts cover four major subject areas: engine phenomenology and case studies, fundamental mechanisms of combustion instability, combustion instability analysis, and engine and component testing. Especially noteworthy is the inclusion of technical information from Russia and China--a first.

This is the first book in the literature to cover the development and testing practices for liquid rocket engines in Russia and the former Soviet Union.Combustion instability represents one of the most challenging probelms in the development of propulsion engines. A famous example is the F-1 engines for the first stage of the Saturn V launch vehicles in the Apollo project. More than 2000 full engine tests and a vast number of design modifications were conducted to cure the instability problem.This book contains first-hand information about the testing and development practices for treating liquid rocket combustion-instability problems in Russia and the former Soviet Union. It covers more than 50 years of research, with an emphasis placed on the advances made since 1970.The book was prepared by a former R&D director of the Research Institute of Chemical Engineering, NIICHIMMASH, the largest liquid rocket testing center in the world, and has been carefully edited by three well-known experts in the field.

Liquid Rocket and Propellants

The great engineering achievement required to overcome most of the challenges and obstacles that prevented turning rocket design from art into science took place in Europe and the United States between the 1930s and the 1950s. With the vast majority of the engines currently in operation developed in the “pre-computer” age, there are new opportunities to update the design methodologies using technology that can now handle highly complex calculations fast. The space sector with an intense focus on efficiency is driving the need for updating, adapting or replacing the old modeling practices with new tools capable of reducing the volume of resources and the time required to complete simulations and analysis. This book presents an innovative parametric model applicable to the project of some elements of the liquid rocket thrust chamber with the level of detail and accuracy appropriate to the preliminary design phase. It addresses the operating characteristics and dimensioning of some thrust chamber elements through a set of equations and parameters, which include thrust or propellant characteristics. The model degree of sophistication was adjusted to the requirements of the Project Life Cycle Phase B, while also enabling quick analysis of new configurations from changes in initial project parameters.