Analysis of film cooling for a 3kN LOX/butane demonstrator engine

Abstract

Regenerative cooling has been the primary cooling method for every modern launch vehicle engine, except for the Viking: a film-cooled (with ablative throat) N2O4 / UH25 engine used on the first stage of the Ariane rockets 2-4. Despite this, film-cooling as a stand-alone cooling method has traditionally been considered insufficient for the high combustion temperatures and long burn times associated with launcher engines. This study explored the feasibility of a solely film-cooled engine at the demonstrator scale (3 kN), as a prototype for a lightweight launcher engine. A wide range of liquid oxygen (LOX)/butane engines were modelled and from this a relationship was determined to predict chamber wall temperature for a given oxidiser-to-fuel ratio (O/F), chamber pressure, and amount of film cooling. Notably, this equation was found to apply to both a 3 kN and a 30 kN engine. Numerical modelling of engine specific impulse (Isp) using this equation then found the conditions yielding optimal engine performance.