Design of the thrust chamber: Dimensional analysis of the combustion chamber and the nozzle of rocket engine using LOX/LCH4 propellants

Abstract

This paper presents a preliminary dimensional study of small thrust chamber using LOX/LCH4 as propellants. In this study, the mixture ratio of the propellants, the temperature and the pressure at the combustion chamber are used to determinate the geometric parameters of the nozzle and the combustion chamber such as the volume, surfaces, lengths, diameters, etc. our work is based on the most important required output of the propulsion engine which is the thrust force. The results of our work provides the flow areas at the exit of the nozzle and at the throat for different values of the thrust force (10-20-30 KN) and different mixture ratio of the propellants (2.7-2.8-2.9). Moreover, the volume of the combustion chamber is calculated for different proposed characteristic length (80-160-240 cm). Our results offer decisive guidelines for the design of these key parts of the thrust chamber which is required for the design of the whole rocket engine as future work.