ABSTRACT |
the preliminary development phase of the apogee engine,a peak vacuum specific impulse Ispv of 325 s was set as the initial development target.This performance requirement of the apogee engine is greater than that of the bipropellant engine using NTO/monomethyl hydrazine (MMH).To meet such high performance requirements,we empoyed a NTO/N2H4 propellant system instead of NTO/MMH propellant and used a very large area ratio nozzle (nozzle area ratio is 200 to 300).To enhance the reliability of the apogee propulsion system,we selected a pressure-fed,full-blowdown system.Fundamental studies including hard-start,pop and thermal problems were also conducted during the development series of apogee engine started in 1983. Performance characteristics of apogee engine developed in 1990 was as follows;chamber pressure Pc=0.97~0.63 MPa,mixture ratio MR=0.85~1.05,vacuum thrust=1980~1280 N,mean vaccum specific impulse Ispv=0320.0±2.7 s,and total burn time=2900 s.Delivered peak Ispv was less than the initial development tt,however,the engine performance was higher than that of the engine for NTO/MMH propellant.This paper describes mainly the development studies of the injectors used in the apogee engine. |