July 13, 2009
Purdue research concentrates on design of rocket engine design
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At Purdue's Maurice J. Zucrow Laboratories, a research team led by William Anderson is conducting experiments that will help NASA build rocket engines that will be used for human space exploration after the space shuttle program ends in 2010.
The design of rocket engines has traditionally been largely empirical. However, computational advances over the past decade have made it possible to model the large and complex problems presented by very high pressure combustion.
"We are on the steep part of the curve in learning how to use these models," says Anderson, associate professor of aeronautics and astronautics. "Our group is producing the first sets of very detailed data that will be used to validate them."
Better computational models would enable engineers to see how a design performs before building the engine, saving time and money.
"It costs many millions of dollars to build these engines, and more millions to test them," Anderson says. "So before building one, you must have a good idea of how it's going to work."
One project is focused on measuring local heat flux in a subscale model of the J-2X engine, an upgraded version of the J-2, which was part of the Saturn V vehicle that carried astronauts to the moon in the Apollo missions.
"We carefully scale the rocket and test it at its actual operating conditions in a model combustor that is instrumented to provide critical measurements," says Mauritz deRidder, a graduate student working on the project.
The J-2X is part of the Ares rocket, which will be used to launch the Orion spacecraft for manned missions to the moon, Mars and beyond. It will also be used to carry materials into Earth orbit for retrieval by other spacecraft bound for the moon and Mars.
Anderson's group also is studying the combustion stability of rockets that use liquid methane, a fuel NASA is considering for use in the lunar ascent engine (LAE) that will be used by astronauts during their return from the moon.
"The LAE will be a totally new engine," Anderson says. "Liquid methane provides a good balance between performance and storability, and its use is a technology stepping stone toward in-situ resource utilization for exploring Mars."
Anderson's group has developed a device to evaluate new designs under simulated unstable conditions.
"We reproduce an instability in a test chamber and measure how the methane combustion is affected by the unstable flowfield," says graduate student Matthew Wierman.
The rocket work is funded by NASA's Constellation University Institute Project, which supports research at universities around the nation. Missions using the J-2X and LAE are planned for the next decade.
PHOTO CAPTION:
William Anderson (right), associate professor of aeronautics and astronautics, and graduate students Mauritz deRidder (left) and Matt Wierman are working on experiments that will help NASA build rocket engines for future manned missions. (Photo by Andrew Hancock)