LUMEN - Design of the Regenerative Cooling System for an Expander Bleed Cycle Engine Using Methane

Abstract

The regenerative cooling still is one of the most crucial parts in designing a liquid rocket engine. The goal of an effective design is a trade-off between a sufficient cooling of the structure and a low pressure drop in the cooling channels. For an expander type cycle a third requirement arises: A sufficient enthalpy increase of the cooling fluid for the turbopumps to operate effectively. To prevent the combustion chamber from melting, the regenerative cooling has to be designed with a sufficient margin to respect all uncertainties. A neural network based surrogate model is used to study the robustness of the cooling channel design for other load points of the engine. In this paper, the design of the regenerative cooling system and the manufacturing of a subscale combustion chamber will be discussed.