DEVELOPMENT AND TESTING OF AN ADDITIVELY MANUFACTURED COUNTER-SWIRL INJECTOR HEAD

Abstract

Additive manufacturing allows for new designs for injection elements of rocket engines. Counter-swirled injection channels of different sizes can be integrated in each injection element. Additionally, using an integrated design reduces time consuming integration steps. On the other hand, additive manufacturing of these features requires extensive knowledge during the manufacturing process to make sure the single channels all function as intended. Therefore, cold spray tests on single injector elements have been conducted using H20 and gaseous nitrogen as test fluids. Functionality of different channel sizes, pressure loss and spray characteristics have been evaluated during these tests and are described in this paper.