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Space Propulsion
Figure 11: Experimental set-up for turbopump investigations
The research activities of the group are part of the project
KonRAT at the Ludwig Bölkow Campus: ‘Komponenten
von Raketentriebwerken für Anwendungen in Transport-
systemen der Luft- und Raumfahrt’. The partners in this
project strive to create a professional network including
universities, research institutions and industry in order to
enhance the competences in the fields of turbopumps for
liquid rocket engines and powder-based additive layer
manufacturing for space applications.
A design methodology for each component of the
turbopump, i.e. inducer, impeller, volute and turbine, has
been developed. With the help of numerical simulations
the design of the turbopump components is optimized
within an iterative loop. Thereby detailed flow analyses
play a crucial role for targeted geometry modifications
and new design concepts. Fig. 10 provides an overview
of our approach to start with flow analyses for all the
different components and once a promising performance
is found for these, in a second attempt analyses are
performed for a setup where all components are linked
together.
The experimental investigation of tubopump components
is an essential step in order to evaluate the capability of
new turbopumps designs. Therefore, a new test bench has
been developed and installed at the facilities of the Division
Space Propulsion where it is possible to investigate pump
components with respect to their hydrodynamic properties
as well as their cavitation behavior, see Fig. 11.
The experiments are performed under subscale condi-
tions with reduced rotational speeds and with water as a
surrogate for the cryogenic fuels and oxidizers commonly
used in liquid rocket engines. Based on a scaling logic,
that has been developed as well, this approach allows
integration of experimental data as early as possible in the
design process of newly developed pump components.
The research work perfomed at this test bench focuses
on the operational stability of pumps over a wide range of
operating conditions and operation in off-design condi-
tions.
Turbo-Pump Technologies
Figure 10: Numerical results for the flow through different components of
a turbo machine