Cryogenic Rocket Engine

Presented By: ANKUR VYAS

Meaning of Cryogenics

In physics, cryogenics is the study of the production of very low temperature(below −150 °C, −238 °F or 123 K) and the behavior of materials at those temperatures .

Cryogenic technology o Cryogenic technology involves the use of rocket propellants

at extremely low temperatures.

o The combination of liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen

offers the highest energy efficiency for rocket engines that

need to produce large amounts of thrust.

o Oxygen remains a liquid only at temperatures below minus

183 ° Celsius and hydrogen at below minus 253 ° Celsius.

History of Cryogenic Technology The United States was the first country to develop cryogenic

rocket engines.

with RL-10 engines, registered its first successful flight in 1963

and is still used on the Atlas V rocket.

Then The Japanese LE-5 engine flew in 1977 ,French HM-7 in

1979 , Chinese YF-73 in 1984 .

The Soviet Union, first country to put a satellite and later a

human in space, successfully launched a rocket with a cryogenic

engine only in 1987.

The first operational cryogenic engine

(AMERICAN) - ATLAS V

(Russian) - N 1

Cont…. To India the U.S., Japan and France would either not provide the technology

or do so only at an exorbitant price.

The 11D56 cryogenic engine had been developed for one of the upper

stages of the mammoth N1 rocket, the Soviet equivalent of Saturn V. But

after four successive launch failures, the N1 project was scrapped and its

engines were mothballed.

The deal violated the Missile Technology Control Regime, which was

intended to prevent the spread of missile-related technology, and fell foul of

the U.S. laws meant to enforce its provisions. Despite warnings from within

the organization, ISRO opted to go ahead with the import. In May 1992, the

U.S. imposed sanctions on ISRO and Glavkosmos. A year later, Russia,

which received the contract after the break-up of the Soviet Union,

backed out of the deal.

Cont…. ISRO then had no option but to develop the technology on

its own.

At the time, ISRO gave the impression that much of the

technology had already been acquired and further

development would be quick.

A GSLV with an indigenous cryogenic engine would be

ready to fly in about four years, Chairman U.R. Rao told in

July 1993. Instead, it has taken 16 years.

Working It involves a complicated ‘staged combustion cycle' to increase

the engine efficiency.

Hydrogen is partially burnt with a little oxygen in a gas

generator. The hot gases drive a turbo-pump and are then

injected at high pressure into the thrust chamber where the

rest of oxygen is introduced and full combustion takes place.

Before going to the gas generator, the incredibly chilly liquid

hydrogen is used to cool the thrust chamber where

temperatures rise to over 3,0000 ° Celsius when the engine is

fired.

Production & Manufacturing The Indian cryogenic engine is produced by Godrej and the

Hyderabad-based MTAR Technologies working together as

a consortium.

Instead of ISRO first mastering the technology and

transferring it to industry, the two companies were

involved from the start and even the early prototypes were

built by them.

Why didn't the cryogenic engine of India ignite?

The GSLV D3, which lifted off well from Sriharikota on Thursday, April 15, 2010 later plunged into the sea as the indigenous cryogenic engine failed to ignite.

The vehicle lifted off as planned at 4.27 p.m. and its performance was normal up to the end of its second stage till 293 seconds from the lift-off.

An authoritative former ISRO official said: “It is very clear that the cryogenic engine did not ignite when you look at the curve [of the vehicle's trajectory]

the vehicle developed problems when the cryogenic upper stage should have ignited 304 seconds after the lift-off, and it fell into the sea

AdvantagesHigh Energy per unit mass: Propellants like oxygen and hydrogen in

liquid form give very high amounts of energy per unit mass due to which the amount of fuel to be carried aboard the rockets decreases.

Clean Fuels Hydrogen and oxygen are extremely clean fuels.

When they combine, they give out only water. This water is thrown out of the nozzle in form of very hot vapour. Thus the rocket is nothing but a high burning steam engine

Economical Use of oxygen and hydrogen as fuels is very

economical, as liquid oxygen costs less than gasoline.

Drawbacks:Boil off Rate

Highly reactive gases

Leakage

Hydrogen Embrittlement

Zero Gravity conditions

The next generation of the Rocket Engines

All rocket engines burn their fuel to generate thrust . If any other engine can generate enough thrust, that can also be used as a rocket engine

There are a lot of plans for new engines that the NASA scientists are still working with. One of them is the “ Xenon ion Engine”. This engine accelerate ions or atomic particles to extremely high speeds to create thrust more efficiently. NASA's Deep Space-1 spacecraft will be the first to use ion engines for propulsion.

There are some alternative solutions like Nuclear thermal rocket engines, Solar thermal rockets, the electric rocket etc.

We are looking forward that in the near future there will be some good technology to take us into space