Dual Regenerative Cooling Circuits for Liquid Rocket Engines (Preprint)

Abstract

Effectiveness of dual cooling to lower the maximum wall temperature of regeneratively cooled engines is the focus of this study. Two engines, the SSME and a RP1-LOX engine, are retrofitted with dual-circuits. It is shown that the maximum wall temperatures for both engines are substantially reduced while also lowering coolant pumping power. It is also shown that with RP1 as the coolant, the likelihood of coking is reduced with use of dual-circuits.