View source for Regenerative cooling (rocketry)

{{short description|Passing cold propellant through tubes around a rocket engine to cool it}}
{{More citations needed|date=February 2015}}

In [[rocket engine]] design, '''regenerative cooling''' is a configuration in which some or all of the [[propellant]] is passed through tubes, channels, or in a jacket around the [[combustion chamber]] or nozzle to cool the engine. This is effective because the propellants are often cryogenic. The heated propellant is then fed into a special [[gas-generator cycle|gas-generator]] or injected directly into the main combustion chamber.

== History ==
[[File:Опытный жидкостный ракетный двигатель ОРМ-50.jpg|thumb|Cut-away of the ORM-50 engine, cooling jacket on the nozzle is visible]]
In 1857 [[Carl Wilhelm Siemens]] introduced the concept of regenerative cooling.<ref>See:
*  Charles William Siemens, "Improvements in refrigerating and producing ice, and in apparatus or machinery for that purpose", British patent no. 2064 (filed: July 29, 1857).
*  [[Siemens cycle]]</ref> On 10 May 1898, [[James Dewar]] used regenerative cooling to become the first to statically liquefy hydrogen.<ref>See:
*  James Dewar (1898) [https://archive.org/stream/proceedings63royauoft#page/256/mode/2up "Preliminary note on the liquefaction of hydrogen and helium,"] ''Proceedings of the Royal Society of London'', '''63''' :  256-258.
*  {{cite web|title=Liquid Hydrogen as a Propulsion Fuel, 1945-1959|url=https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4404/app-a1.htm|website=NASA History program Office|publisher=History.nasa.gov|accessdate=9 August 2014}}</ref>
The concept of regenerative cooling was also mentioned in 1903 in an article by [[Konstantin Tsiolkovsky]].<ref>Tsiolkovsky, Konstantin E. (1903) "Исследование мировых пространств реактивными приборами" (The exploration of cosmic space by means of reaction devices), ''Научное обозрение'' (Scientific Review) '''5''' :  44-75. (in Russian)</ref> [[Robert Goddard]] built the first regeneratively cooled engine in 1923, but rejected the scheme as too complex.<ref>{{cite book|author=Frank H. Winter|title=Rockets Into Space|url=https://archive.org/details/rocketsintospace0000wint|url-access=registration|year=1990|publisher=Harvard University Press|location=Cambridge, Massachusetts|isbn=978-0-674-77660-9|page=[https://archive.org/details/rocketsintospace0000wint/page/30 30]}}</ref>
A regeneratively cooled engine was built by the Italian researcher, [[Gaetano Arturo Crocco]] in 1930. The first Soviet engines to employ the technique were [[Fridrikh Tsander]]'s OR-2 tested in March 1933 and the ORM-50, bench tested in November 1933 by [[Valentin Glushko]]. The first German engine of this type was also tested in March 1933 by Klaus Riedel in the [[Verein für Raumschiffahrt|VfR]]. The Austrian scientist [[Eugen Sänger]] was particularly famous for experiments with engine cooling starting in 1933; however, most of his experimental engines were water-cooled or cooled by an extra circuit of propellant.

The [[V-2 rocket]] engine, the most powerful of its time at 25 [[tonne-force|tons]] (245 [[kilonewton|kN]]) of thrust, was regeneratively cooled, in a design by [[Walter Thiel]], by fuel pumped around the outside of the combustion chamber between the combustion chamber itself and an outer shell that conformed to the chamber and was separated by a few millimeters. This design was found to be insufficient to cool the combustion chamber due to the use of steel for the combustion chamber, and an additional system of fuel lines were added outside with connections through both combustion chamber shells to inject fuel directly into the chamber at an angle along the inner surface to further cool the chamber in a system called film cooling. This inefficient design required the burning of diluted alcohol at low chamber pressure to avoid melting the engine. The American [[Redstone (rocket)|Redstone]] engine used the same design.[[File:Roof of combustion chamber V2 rocket engine showing the double wall for regenerative cooling.jpg|thumb|Double-walled construction of a V2 rocket engine]]

A key innovation in regenerative cooling was the Soviet U-1250 engine designed by [[Aleksei Mihailovich Isaev]] in 1945. Its combustion chamber was lined with a thin copper sheet supported by the corrugated steel wall of the chamber. Fuel flowed through the corrugations and absorbed heat very efficiently. This permitted more energetic fuels and higher chamber pressures, and is the basic plan used in all Russian engines since.
American engines usually solved this problem by lining the combustion chamber with [[Brazing|brazed]] copper or nickel alloy tubes. Only recently engines like the [[RS-68]] have started to use the cheaper Russian technique. The American style of lining the engine with copper tubes is called the "spaghetti construction", and the concept is credited to Edward A. Neu at [[Reaction Motors]] Inc. in 1947.

== Mechanism ==
Regenerative cooling remains the predominant method for managing the thermal loads in thrust chambers. Typically the rocket fuel acts as a coolant as it enters the engine through passages at the nozzle exit.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Lui |first=Clarence |last2=Quan |first2=Myron |last3=Wong |first3=Rebecca |title=Recirculating Regenerative Environmental Control System |journal=Journal of Aerospace |volume=113 |pages=1359-1374 |doi=10.4271/2004-01-2575}}</ref> It traverses the high-heat throat region and exits near the injector face. These passages are created either by brazing cooling tubes to the thrust chamber or by milling channels along the chamber walls. The cross-sections of these passages are smaller, increasing the coolant velocity and maximizing cooling efficiency in high-heat areas.<ref name=":0" />

=== Heat flow and temperature ===
The [[heat flux]] through the chamber wall is very high; usually in the range of 0.8–80 MW/m{{sup|2}} (0.5-50 [[BTU]]/in{{sup|2}}-sec).<ref name="HuzelAndHuang">{{cite book
 |last1 = Huzel
 |first1 = Dexter K.
 |last2 = Huang
 |first2 = David H.
 |date = 1 January 1971
 |title = NASA SP-125, Design of Liquid Propellant Rocket Engines, Second Edition
 |url = https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19710019929_1971019929.pdf
 |publisher = NASA
 |page = <!-- or pages= -->
 |archive-url = https://web.archive.org/web/20220920163632/https://ntrs.nasa.gov/archive/nasa/casi.ntrs.nasa.gov/19710019929_1971019929.pdf
 |archive-date = 20 September 2022
 |url-status = dead
 |access-date = 11 September 2022
 }}</ref>{{rp|98}} A common method for estimating the heat flux flowing out from the hot combustion gases is to use the Bartz equation:<ref>{{Cite journal |date=January 1957 |title=Technical Notes |url=https://arc.aiaa.org/doi/10.2514/8.12572 |journal=Journal of Jet Propulsion |language=en |volume=27 |issue=1 |pages=49–53 |doi=10.2514/8.12572 |issn=1936-9980}}</ref>
<div style="text-align: center;">
<math>h_g = \frac{0.026}{D_{*}^{0.2}} \left(  \frac{\mu^{0.2}c_p} {Pr^{0.6}}\right)  \left( \frac{p_c}{c^{*}}\right)^{0.8}   \left(\frac{D_{*}}{r_c} \right)^{0.1} \left( \frac{A_t}{A} \right)^{0.9}\sigma
</math><!-- This equation differs from the original paper by omitting g; the original paper used it to convert from lbm to lbf in the pressure term. It is not needed with the SI units shown here. -->
</div>
*<math>h_g
</math> is the [[heat transfer coefficient]] from the hot combustion gas to the chamber/nozzle interior wall (W/m²/K)
* <math>D_*
</math> is the diameter of the chamber throat (m)
* <math>\mu
</math> is the [[Viscosity|dynamic viscosity]] of the combustion gas (Pa s)
* <math>c_p
</math> is the [[specific heat capacity]] of the combustion gas (J/kg/K)
* <math>Pr
</math> is the [[Prandtl number]] of the combustion gas
* <math>p_c
</math> is the chamber pressure (Pa)
* <chem>c^{\ast}</chem> is the [[characteristic velocity]] of the combustion reaction (m/s)
* <math>r_c
</math> is the [[radius of curvature]] of the throat wall (m)
* <math>A_t
</math> is the cross sectional area of the chamber throat (m<sup>2</sup>)
* <math>A
</math> is the cross sectional area of the chamber/nozzle at the point of interest (m<sup>2</sup>)

* <math>\sigma
</math> is a dimensionless parameter accounting for variation of gas properties across the [[boundary layer]]:
<div style="text-align: center;">
<math>\sigma = \frac{1} {\left(\frac{1}{2}\frac{T_w}{T_c}(1+\frac{\gamma-1}{2}M^{2})+\frac{1}{2}\right)^{0.8-\omega/5} \left(1+\frac{\gamma-1}{2}M^{2}\right)^{\omega/5}}</math>
</div>
* <math>T_w
</math> is the temperature of the chamber/nozzle interior wall (K)
* <math>T_c
</math> is the chamber temperature (K)
* <math>\gamma
</math> is the [[Heat capacity ratio|ratio of specific heats]] of the combustion gas
* <math>M
</math> is the [[Mach number]] of the combustion gas at the point of interest
* <math>\omega</math> is the exponent of a viscosity-temperature power law for the combustion gas. A common estimation is 0.6. See [[Temperature dependence of viscosity#Power-law force|temperature dependence of viscosity]].

The amount of heat that can flow into the coolant is controlled by many factors including the temperature difference between the chamber and the coolant, the [[heat transfer coefficient]], the [[thermal conductivity]] of the chamber wall, the velocity of the fluid inside the coolant channels, the velocity of the gas flow in the chamber/nozzle as well as the [[heat capacity]] and incoming temperature of the fluid used as a coolant.

Two [[boundary layer]]s form: one in the hot gas in the chamber (which is modeled with the Bartz equation above) and the other in the coolant within the channels.<ref name="HuzelAndHuang"/>{{rp|104–105}}

Very typically most of the temperature drop occurs in the gas boundary layer since gases are relatively poor conductors. This boundary layer can be destroyed however by [[combustion instability|combustion instabilities]], and wall failure can follow very soon afterwards.

The boundary layer within the coolant channels can also be disrupted if the coolant is at subcritical pressure and film boils; the gas then forms an insulating layer and the wall temperature climbs very rapidly and soon fails. However, if the coolant engages in [[nucleate boiling]] but does not form a film, this helps disrupt the coolant boundary layer and the gas bubbles formed rapidly collapse; this can triple the maximum heat flow. However, many modern engines with turbopumps use supercritical coolants, and these techniques can be seldom used.

Regenerative cooling is seldom used in isolation; film cooling,<ref name=":0">{{cite web|url=http://www.me.umn.edu/labs/tcht/measurements/what.html |title=What is Film Cooling? |publisher=Me.umn.edu |date= |accessdate=2015-02-24}}</ref>  transpiration cooling, [[radiation cooling]] are frequently employed as well.

=== Mechanical considerations ===
With regenerative cooling, the pressure in the cooling channels is greater than the chamber pressure. The inner liner is under compression, while the outer wall of the engine is under significant [[hoop stress]]es.

The metal of the inner liner is greatly weakened by the high temperature, and also undergoes significant thermal expansion at the inner surface while the cold-side wall of the liner constrains the expansion. This sets up significant thermal stresses that can cause the inner surface to crack or [[Crazing|craze]] after multiple firings particularly at the throat.

In addition the thin inner liner requires mechanical support to withstand the compressive loading due to the propellant's pressure; this support is usually provided by the side walls of the cooling channels and the backing plate. The inner liner is usually constructed of relatively high temperature, high thermal conductivity materials; traditionally copper or nickel based alloys have been used.

Several different manufacturing techniques can be used to create the complex geometry necessary for regenerative cooling. These include a corrugated metal sheet brazed between the inner and outer liner; hundreds of pipes brazed into the correct shape, or an inner liner with milled cooling channels and an outer liner around that.<ref>{{Cite journal |url=https://arc.aiaa.org/doi/10.2514/2.6943 |title=History of Liquid-Propellant Rocket Engines in Russia, Formerly the Soviet Union |author=George P. Sutton |journal=Journal of Propulsion and Power |volume=19 |number=6 |publisher=Pdf.aiaa.org |date=November–December 2003 |pages=1008–1037 |doi=10.2514/2.6943 }}</ref> 
The geometry can also be created through direct metal [[3D printing]], as seen on some newer designs such as the [[SpaceX]] [[SuperDraco]] rocket engine.

==See also==
*[[Regenerative cooling]]
*[[Expander cycle]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

[[Category:Rocket propulsion]]