Thrust chambers are an essential subassembly of liquid propellant rocket engines. This chapter describes chemical rocket thrust chambers and their components, including the topics of ignition and heat transfer. In the thrust chamber liquid propellants are metered, injected, atomized, vaporized, mixed, and burned to form hot reaction gaseous products, which are subsequently accelerated and ejected at supersonic velocities (see Refs. 6–1, 6–2, and 8–1). Chamber assemblies (e.g., Figs. 8–1 and 8–2) comprise one or more injectors, a combustion chamber, a supersonic nozzle, and various mounting provisions. All these parts have to withstand the extreme combustion environments and various forces, including those that transmit thrust to the vehicle. An ignition system must be also present when nonspontaneously ignitable propellants are utilized. Some thrust chamber assemblies also include integrally mounted propellant valves and occasionally thrust vector control devices, as described in Chapter 18. Table 8–1 presents data on five thrust chambers each having different kinds of propellants, cooling methods, injectors, feed systems, thrust levels, and/or nozzle expansions. Some engine parameters are also listed. Several terms used in this table are explained later in this chapter.
Figure 8–1 Construction of an early regeneratively cooled tubular thrust chamber ...
Become an O’Reilly member and get unlimited access to this title plus top books and audiobooks from O’Reilly and nearly 200 top publishers, thousands of courses curated by job role, 150+ live events each month, and much more.
O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.
Julian F.
Head of Cybersecurity
I wanted to learn C and C++, but it didn't click for me until I picked up an O'Reilly book. When I went on the O’Reilly platform, I was astonished to find all the books there, plus live events and sandboxes so you could play around with the technology.
Addison B.
Field Engineer
I’ve been on the O’Reilly platform for more than eight years. I use a couple of learning platforms, but I'm on O'Reilly more than anybody else. When you're there, you start learning. I'm never disappointed.
Amir M.
Data Platform Tech Lead
I'm always learning. So when I got on to O'Reilly, I was like a kid in a candy store. There are playlists. There are answers. There's on-demand training. It's worth its weight in gold, in terms of what it allows me to do.
O’Reilly covers everything we've got, with content to help us build a world-class technology community, upgrade the capabilities and competencies of our teams, and improve overall team performance as well as their engagement.
