Performance Analysis of a Kerosene/Gaseous Oxygen Liquid Rocket Engine †

Abstract

One of the most widely used rocket propulsion systems that uses liquid propellants is the liquid rocket engine. Due to their high density and specific impulse, liquid fuels and oxidizers are preferred. This project’s goal was to evaluate the performance of a small-scale liquid rocket engine’s pressure feed system, which generates 250 N of thrust. A thrust bed was used for testing to obtain the experimental values, since rocket engine testing was required. A bipropellant chemical propulsion system that uses kerosene II as fuel and gaseous oxygen as an oxidant was created. Using NASA CEA, a theoretical performance evaluation was also performed in addition to this experimentation. For different propellant mixture ratios, the performance metrics under equilibrium flow, including specific impulse, characteristic velocity, thrust, and nozzle exit temperature, were examined. The performance parameters, characteristic velocity, and thrust were highest for all considered chamber pressure values and were maximum at a mixture ratio of 2.25.