Power plants – Reaction motor – Liquid oxidizer
Reexamination Certificate
1999-06-18
2001-02-20
Freay, Charles G. (Department: 3746)
Power plants
Reaction motor
Liquid oxidizer
C060S039821, C239S424000
Reexamination Certificate
active
06189315
ABSTRACT:
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a gas generator and ignitor for providing a high pressure hot gas source to power a turbopump assembly of a rocket engine.
2. Prior Art
Gas generator/ignitor assemblies are used to provide hot gases to rotatably drive the turbopumps of a rocket engine. The known assemblies are very complex and require many parts. A preburner, which is a device similar to a gas generator, generates the hot gasses necessary to drive the turbopumps in, for example, the main engine of the space shuttle or Space Shuttle Main Engine (SSME). The SSME has two such preburners which operate at very high pressures and temperatures. One of the preburners is for the fuel and the other for the liquid oxygen oxidizer (LOX). A gas generator and ignitor assembly may comprise an injector and a combustion chamber. In the SSME the fuel preburner consists of 264 injector elements while the LOX preburner consists of 120 injector elements. Obviously, the complexity of the injectors and the manufacture of the many parts comprising the injectors results in substantial machining of the parts, and other manufacturing and inspection steps resulting in substantial costs. Moreover, many of the existing designs incorporate internal valves to control the flow of propellants to the gas generator thereby resulting in substantially increased complexity and costs. If access to space is to be readily available for commercial payloads, costs must be reduced and controlled.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Consequently, it is a primary object of the present invention to provide a gas generator and ignitor assembly which may generate a high pressure high temperature gas to power a turbopump assembly for a rocket engine, the assembly having a relatively small number of parts requiring a minimum amount of machining and assembly steps, thereby resulting in a low cost reliable assembly.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a low cost gas generator/ignitor assembly for driving the turbopump assembly of a liquid propellent rocket engine which comprises an injector having a minimum number of parts and a combustion chamber connected to and communicating with the output of the injector.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a low cost gas generator/ignitor assembly for driving the turbopump assembly of a liquid propellent rocket engine which comprises an injector having an array of bores in three radially spaced apart circular rows, the bores in each row being aligned radially with the bores in the other two rows to form a bore triplet, respective bores communicating with fuel and with oxidizer, the fuel exiting the fuel bores of a triplet being arranged to impinge on the oxidizer exiting an oxidizer bore of the triplet so that atomization occurs properly.
Accordingly, the present invention provides a gas generator and ignitor assembly for powering a turbine of a turbopump assembly for a rocket engine, the gas generator and ignitor assembly comprising an injector and a combustion chamber. The injector comprises a body member having a fuel inlet and an oxidizer inlet spaced one from the other and communicating with respective radially spaced apart annular chambers in the body member, the annular chambers in the body member being enclosed by a plate having an array of bores arranged in three radially spaced apart circular rows, each bore in one row being aligned radially with a bore in each of the other rows to form a triplet of bores, the bores communicating with respective chambers within the body member. Two of the bores of each triplet are inclined relatively to each other and to the third bore and communicates with chambers which communicate with the fuel supply while the third bore of each triplet, which is radially intermediate the other two bores, communicates with the chamber that communicates with the oxidizer supply.
The triplet arrangement of the bores permits ready atomization of the propellants and insures proper combustion within the combustion chamber where the propellants are mixed, ignited and burned, the burning or combustion of the propellants resulting from ignition of a plug of solid propellant mounted to communicate with the combustion chamber.
REFERENCES:
patent: 3048966 (1962-08-01), Feraud et al.
patent: 3603092 (1971-09-01), Paine
patent: 4882904 (1989-11-01), Schoenman
patent: 5404715 (1995-04-01), Vuillamy et al.
Dennis, Jr. Henry J.
Hissam D. Andy
Myers W. Neill
Taylor Eric S.
Freay Charles G.
McGroary James J.
The United States of America as represented by the Administrator
LandOfFree
Low-cost gas generator and ignitor does not yet have a rating. At this time, there are no reviews or comments for this patent.
If you have personal experience with Low-cost gas generator and ignitor, we encourage you to share that experience with our LandOfFree.com community. Your opinion is very important and Low-cost gas generator and ignitor will most certainly appreciate the feedback.
Profile ID: LFUS-PAI-O-2563077