Damping of Water Hammer with Cavitation in Rocket Engine Feed Lines

Abstract

Water hammer phenomena are of great interest in the field of rocket engineering. Closing a valve rapidly to shut down a rocket engine or stop the chill down procedure can lead to water hammer in the piping system. These high amplitude pressure oscillations can damage the components of the engine. If the vapour pressure is undercut, cavitation will occur. Water hammer damping experiments, some with and some without the occurrence of cavitation, have been performed at the Fluid Transient Test Facility (FTTF) at DLR Lampoldshausen. The main aspect of interest in this paper is the influences of the cavitation on the damping of the pressure oscillation. Therefore tests with and without cavitation will be compared to isolate the impact of the cavitation.