Design of liquid-propellant engine using collaborative optimization and evolutionary algorithms

Abstract

Multidisciplinary design optimization is one of the modern design methods. It was developed in several different structures and used to solve some of the theoretical and applied problems. Collaborative optimization is one of the structures of bi-level multidisciplinary design optimization. It comprises system level and discipline level, which is used to solve engineering complex problems. Collaborative optimization structure maximizes options of discrete disciplines and provides a mechanism for coordinating design problem at system level. The present research discusses capability of the collaborative optimization method to solve multidisciplinary problems aiming at reducing the weight of a liquid-propellant system. It is realized by implementing a propellant system design comprising an engine and consumption of fuel and oxidizer. To do this, we calculated engine parameters through response surface methodology. The calculation parameters were optimized by applying a response surface and an engine structure design in the collaborative optimization process at the same time in the form of combustion, geometry, and weight (structure) problems with the evolutionary algorithms. Finally, we compared the obtained results with the reference results and specified the optimization rate achieved for the values of variables. The values included pressure increase of combustion, specific impulse, engine mass reduction, rate of fuel and oxidizer consumption with fixed thrust, and burn time.

A new approach in multidisciplinary design optimization of upper-stages using combined framework

“…Hard coupling between thermal limitation and thruster's performance (such as pressure, mass flow …) takes place because of using shared parameters in different disciplines [10,9].…”

“…In Ref. [9] multidisciplinary design optimization of bipropellant was introduced based on collaborative optimization (CO) methods. Presented research discusses capability of the collaborative optimization method to solve multidisciplinary problems aiming at reducing the weight of a liquid-propellant system.…”

Multidisciplinary approach to materials selection for bipropellant thrusters using ablative and radiative cooling

“…Heat transfer from combustion chamber and thermal modeling of bipropellant thrusters are one of the important disciplines in propulsion design algorithm. Hard coupling between thermal limitation and thruster's performance (such as pressure, mass flow, o/f ratio,...) takes place because one of the propellants (usually fuel) is simultaneously involved in different disciplines [3,17]. Analytical and computational tools were developed for over cooled walls [11,18], but ablative cooling for liquid bipropellant is difficult to find in literature.…”

A New Approach to Multidisciplinary Design Optimization of Solid Propulsion System Including Heat Transfer and Ablative Cooling

“…Hard coupling between thermal limitation and thruster's performance (such as pressure, mass fl ow, etc.) takes place due the use of shared parameters in diff erent disciplines (Adami 2015;Darabi et al 2015). Analytical and computational tools were developed for over-cooled walls (Knab et al 2009) but known computational and analytical methods are usually involved in CFD and longtime consumption.…”