Study of pressure surge during priming phase of start transient in an initially unprimed pump-fed liquid rocket engine

Abstract

In this paper, transient phenomenon during start up process of a pump fed liquid rocket engine is investigated through numerical simulation. The engine studied in this work is designed such that engine systems are not wetted with propellant until the engine is commanded to start. This is achieved by positioning the valves for propellant admission at the interface of test stand/flight stage and the engine. To evaluate engine performance during start transient for such systems, unsteady flow simulation was conducted using Method of Characteristics and equations for priming. The same has been reported in this work. The results indicated a brief period of abrupt pressure rise at pump upstream after opening of the propellant admission valves, during the process of priming of engine systems at valve downstream. The peak pressure obtained was significantly higher than the propellant tank pressure as well as the steady state pump suction pressure. The transitory pressure rise was found to occur due to flow resistance at impeller inlet caused by formation of a forced vortex for orienting the flow through impeller blades during off design transient regime. The maximum pressure at pump upstream, as computed from start transient simulation, was used as a design input for pump inlet feed lines. The engine was realized and subsequently qualified in a ground test facility. Hot test data obtained for pressure and flow rate during transient regime were found to be in good agreement with the simulation results.