Investigation studies on sub-cooling of cryogenic liquids using Helium injection method

Abstract

In cryogenic propellants, the sub-cooling of cryogenic propellants contained in tanks is an important and effective method for bringing down the lift-off mass of launch vehicle and thus the performance of the rocket engine is greatly improved. This study presents the technical and experimental studies conducted on cryogenic liquids such as Liquid Oxygen, Liquid Nitrogen and Liquid Hydrogen using helium injection method. The influence of cooled Helium on the degree of sub-cooling and the variation in flow rate of Helium gas admitted are discussed. The experimental and theoretical studies indicate that the sub-cooling technique using helium injection is a very simple method and can be very well adopted in propellant tanks used for ground and launch vehicle applications. The overall cooling effect for rocket application is also discussed. The critical values of the non-dimensional parameters and injected helium temperatures are also estimated. © 2014 Science Publication.