45th AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference & Exhibit

2 - 5 August 2009, Denver, Colorado

AIAA 2009-5042

Large Flow rate Shear-Coaxial Gas-gas Injector

Wang Xiaowei1, Cai Guobiao2, Gao Yushan3, Jin Ping4
(School of Astronautics, Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Beijing 100191, China)

Based on the previous results of studies in single-element condition, an optimal design

single-element GO2/GH2 injector was designed and tested at a large flow rate condition
firstly, and the result shows that this injector can complete combustion in the nominal
combustor. Furthermore, to investigate the combustion characteristics of large flow rate
injector in the multi-element injector chamber which have the interaction between the
elements, an optimal design multi-element shear mixing injector equipped with seven
elements was deigned. The shear mixing element had high H2/O2 velocity ratio and flared O2
post tip. Numerical simulation and repeat hot-fire tests were carried out with the injector.
Steady operations were obtained without any stability aids, and the injector showed benign
heat environments on the faceplate and cylinder wall. The combustion efficiency of this
injector exceeds 99% in the flow rate of 3.7 times than that of SSME main injection element
in the nominal combustor.

Nomenclature

pC

= chamber pressure

MR

m&
vr
vO2

=
=
=
=

prH 2

= H2 pressure drop ratio, p / pC

mixing ratio
mass flow rate
velocity ratio
O2 injection velocity

I. Introduction

ince the 1990s, as a key technology of the Full Flow Stage Combustion (FFSC) cycle engine, the gas-gas
injector technology has being preferred1-16. And the gas-gas injectors are also widely used in other small
engines17-18.
Concerning the injector design, supposing that the performance is constant, the engine with fewer injection
elements is preferred. The decrease of injection element numbers (i.e. the increase of element flow rate) results in
more simplicity, lower fabrication cost and higher reliability of the engine. Reducing the number of elements in
future high performance engine has become one of the aims pursued by injector designers, and some efforts has
been done in the gas-liquid injector 19-23. Compared to traditional liquid propellant spray combustion process, gasgas injection combustion process contains straightforward mixing and reaction processes without atomization and
vaporization. This unique characteristic implies that it is feasible to develop a large flow rate gas-gas injector.
The shear-coaxial injectors are widely used in H2/O2 rocket engines, such as SSME and the first stage Ariane 5
Vulcain engine. This type of injector is known to be simple, as well as to be characterized by good chamber
compatibility and good combustion stability. However, to obtain high combustion efficiency, small elements always
are always required in spray combustion chambers. To explore how this type of injector performs with gaseous
propellants and with aborative design, this paper summarizes recent research efforts on design of the large flow rate
shear-mixing gas-gas injector at Beijing University of Aeronautics and Astronautics (BUAA) in China.

Ph D Candidate, School of Astronautics, 403Lab BUAA, P.R. China.

Professor, School of Astronautics, Lab 403 BUAA, P.R. China, Member AIAA
3
Ph D Candidate, School of Astronautics, 403Lab BUAA, P.R. China,.
4
Post-doctor, School of Astronautics, 403Lab BUAA, P.R. China,.
2

1
American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics

Copyright 2009 by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc. All rights reserved.

In reference [24], some efforts focused on design single-element large flow rate gas-gas injector are reported,
and the results showed that an injector with high H2/O2 velocity ratio and flared O2 post tip can be operated in a
large flow rate condition. In this paper, this type of injector in a single-element large flow rate condition is designed
and tested firstly. However, in the single-element chamber, differing from the realistic engine conditions, the interelement interactions dont exist. Except the influence on performance of the inter-element interactions, in the multielement gas-gas injector chamber, the heat load on the injector faceplate is another key problem 6,10,17,25. The further
investigation of multi-element chamber with this type of injector should be done to inspect its combustion
characteristics. Based on the studies on single-element conditions, an injector equipped seven elements was
designed and tested to investigate the application capacity of flow rate and the heat environment.

II. Single-Element Injector Study

A. The Injector Design
The previous investigative results of the single-element conditions indicated that the shear mixing injector with
high fuel/oxidizer velocity ratio (vr) and flared O2 post tip can effectively enhance mixing combustion and also has a
benign heat environment 24. This type of element is used as the benchmark large flow rate one, and gaseous
hydrogen and gaseous oxygen also are chosen as the propellants.
A single-element injector shown in Fig.1 was designed with optimal parameters, and Table 1 shows its design
and nominal operational parameters, in which the H2 injection pressure drop ratio is limited at 20% to moderate the
upstream engine system pressure. Therefore, the O2 injection velocity is very low to obtain a large vr. The sketch of
chamber is shown in Fig.2, and characteristic length and contract ratio of the chamber, chosen from the full-scale
engine, are 800mm and 3.1 respectively.

Fig.1 The element

Fig.2 The single-element chamber

Table 1 Design and nominal operational parameters of the element

vO2 (m/s)

vr

~70

9.0

prH 2

Flared O2 post tip

(Y/N)

O2 post tip
thickness (mm)

MR

20%

0.5

6.0

pC

m&

(MPa)
3

(g/s)
386

The flow rate of the SSME main injector is used as the reference of that of the FFSC main injector. The
chamber pressure in this paper is chosen as the lab pressure of 3MPa. Because of the nature of the gaseous
propellants, when the flow rate increases proportionally to the chamber pressure, other parameters will keep constant.
When the chamber pressure of 3MPa changes to 20.4MPa, the SSME main chamber nominal pressure, the mass
flow rate of 113g/s will change to 768.4g/s which equals to the average nominal flow rate of the SSME main
injection element. Therefore, the flow rate 386g/s of this element represents 3.42 times that of SSME main injector
element.
B. Single-Element Experimental Study
1)

Experimental Facility

The experimental investigation was carried out at the FFSC Laboratory in BUAA. The propellant flow rate
capabilities of the system were 4 kg/s and 0.6 kg/s for ambient temperature gaseous oxygen and hydrogen

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respectively. The gaseous oxygen was supplied from a 25MPa, 5 cubic meters tank. The hydrogen propellant was
also fed from a high pressure ambient temperature storage tank. And sufficient N2 for blow-off could be provided by
this system. The configuration of the single-element chamber can be seen in Fig.3. The chamber was modular and
could be easily configured to accommodate changes in the injector and the length of the combustor and the nozzle.
The chamber was a heat sink design, the cylinder was made of copper, and the injector was made of stainless steel.
The nozzle part was fabricated from Wu7Cu. The igniter was a resonance torch one that was heated by air.
As shown in Fig.3, to investigate whether the combustion is completed in the combustor, the wall temperature
measurement method used in reference [24] was also applied in this study.
Gaseous
Hydrogen

Temperature
Measurement Point

Igniter

Gaseous
Oxygen

Fig.3 Schematics of the single-element chamber

Some small holes were designed at the locations of the measurement points. Axial locations for
instrumentation are indicated in Fig.3. The distances between all the measurement points and the combustor inner
wall were the same. Multiple instrumentations (4 each) were presented at some axial location, and four
thermocouples were separated at 900.
The timing of the tests was designed as following: The igniter worked before the injector, once the chamber
pressure got steady, the igniter was shut down. Because the igniter mass flow rate was less than 10g/s, the total
temperature was less than 10000C, and the ignition time lasted less than 1s, the influence of the ignition on wall
temperature could be neglected.
2) Results and Discussion
3 repeat hot-fire tests were conducted, and operated steadily. Real operational parameters and representative
chamber pressure profiles are summarized in Table 2 and Fig. 4. Wall temperature increments versus axial distance
of the large flow rate injector can be seen in Fig.5.
220
200
180

T, K

160
140

Run 1 of 3
Run 2 of 3

120

Run 3 of 3

100
80

Fig.4 The typical chamber pressure curve for the

single-element injector

50

100

150
x, mm

200

250

Fig.5 Wall temperature increments versus axial

distance
Table 2 Operational parameters of hot-fire tests

Flow rate of O2
(g/s)
329

Flow rate of H2
(g/s)
54.7

Total
Flow rate(g/s)
383.7

The real MR

Repeat times

6.01

Due to the wall temperature increments at the measurement points along the axial direction are determined by
the heat flux on the inner wall, and the heat flux distribution indicates the development and completion status of
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combustion flow field. Therefore, the distribution of temperature increments in the hot-test can generally indicate
the combustion condition in the chamber. This temperature measurement method can be used to reflect the
development and completion of the inner combustion flow field. Because of the obvious increase of the injection
flow rate, Fig.5 shows the climbing rate of heat load becomes much lower and the combustion completion length
becomes much longer. Fortunately, the curve arrives at the maximum steady value at 190mm. The result indicates
that this shear mixing element design can finish the combustion in the combustor designed with the nominal
parameters, and it also has capability of further increase of the injection flow rate.

III. Multi-Element Injector Study

A. The Injector Design
Based on the single-element study above, to investigate the combustion characteristics of this type of injector
in the multi-element injector chambers which have the interaction between the elements, a multi-element injector
equipped with seven elements in the shape of concentricity were designed and fabricated, and the design parameters
of each element are the same as the single-element injector shown in Table 1, but the operation parameters of
chamber pressure and flow rate are changed. The flow rate of each element represents 3.7 times that of SSME main
injector element. The space between the elements had been numerically optimally designed to maximize the
combustion efficiency and minimize the heat load on the injector face. Figure 6 shows the layout of the multielement injector.

Fig.6 The multi-element injector

B. Numerical Analysis
1)

Numerical Model

The CFD code used for calculating the combusting GO2/GH2 flow field solves the fluid dynamic N-S equations
incorporating a k- turbulence model, and a 6-species, 9-reaction H2/O2 chemical kinetics model. Chemical reaction
is modeled with Arrhenius formulation26. The entire system was solved by a strongly coupled implicit timemarching method using ADI factorization for the inversion of the implicit operator. Convective terms were 2-order
flux split upwinding differenced, whereas diffusion terms were centrally differenced.
As a result of the non-axisymmetric nature of the injector element in multi-element chamber, as shown in Fig.7,
a 60o pie section of the chamber, encompassing a complete element, was modeled. The radial and axial stretchings
of the grid were used near the wall boundary and in the shear layer region.

Fig.7 The computational region and grid

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The inlets were fixed mass flow rate, and the inlet turbulence intensities were both set to be 5%. The nozzle exit
was specified as a supersonic outlet. Adiabatic non-slip wall boundaries were used on the chamber walls. Two
symmetric sides of the model were set as symmetric boundaries for multi-element chamber.
2) Numerical Results and Analysis
Figure 8 and Figure 9 show that temperature contours and H2 mole fraction contours of the chambers.
Figure 8 indicates that flame still starts and develops at the shear layer between oxygen and hydrogen in the
multi-element chamber. Figure 8 and Figure 9 show that the region near the faceplate is at relative low temperature
and fuel-rich environment. The outer low temperature fuel is around the flame and oxidizer for this type of element,
and because of bigger molecule and larger momentum of O2, the O2 flow hardly changes its direction, thus the
circumfluence flow mainly contains a lot of the low temperature fuel and some combustion productions, which
induces the benign heat environment near the faceplate.
Due to the benign heat environment of these types of injectors, the faceplate cooling will be not necessary in
the hot-fire tests.

Fig.8 Temperature contour at some sections in the

Fig.9 H2 mole fraction contour at some sections in the

chamber

chamber

C. Experimental Study
1)

Experimental Facility

The configuration of the multi-element chamber can be seen in Fig.10. The chamber was modular and
could be easily configured to accommodate changes in the injector and the length of the combustor and the
nozzle. The chamber was a heat sink design, the cylinder was made of copper, and the injector was made of
stainless steel. The nozzle part was fabricated from Wu7Cu. The igniter was a resonance torch one that was
heated by air. As shown in Fig.10, to investigate the heat load of the combustor wall, the wall temperature
measurement method was also applied in this study.
The same to the measurement method used in the tests of single-element conditions, some small holes
were designed at the locations of the measurement points. Axial locations for instrumentation are indicated
in Fig.10. The distances between all the measurement points and the combustor inner wall were the same.
Multiple instrumentations (4 each) were presented at some axial location, and four thermocouples were
separated at 900 . Figure 11 shows the arrangement of the thermocouples circumferential locations. The main
measurement arrays located at the sides of the outer elements to check the highest heat flux distributions.
Photos of the pre-test injectors shown in Fig.12 indicate that no any cooling was applied at the
faceplates, which is derived from the results of numerical results. Extreme care was exercised in the
manufacturing of the injector, the most error occurred in the concentricity of the fuel annular which still was
less than 0.06mm. The timing of the tests was designed the same as that of the single-element testing.

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Temperature Measurement
Gaseous
Hydrogen

Gaseous
Oxygen

Gaseous
Hydrogen

Igniter

Fig.10 Schematics of the multi-element chamber

Major measurement array
0

90

270

180

Fig.12 Photo of the pre-test multi-element injector

Fig.11 Locations of the temperature measurement

arrays
2)

Results and Discussion

Two repeat hot-fire tests were conducted, and operated steadily without any stability aids. Real operational
parameters and representative chamber pressure profiles are summarized in Table 3 and Fig.13. The nominal MR
was 6.0. The pressure profiles show that the combustor operated steadily, started up and shut down smoothly. The
time traces of some thermocouples are shown in Fig.14. In terms of nomenclature in the figure, for example, the first
trace labeled TC-40-00 denotes that the thermocouple was at the 40mm axial location, at 00 degrees (angle was
defined with respect to major array of thermocouple). It can be seen that all temperature traces were all well behaved
and not noisy.
The characteristic velocity ( C * ) efficiencies for the cases were calculated and summarized in Table 3. The
C * exceeds 99.2%, which indicates that this type of element can obtain high combustion efficiency at injection
flow rate of 3.7 time at least than that of SSME main injector element in the combustor designed with the nominal
parameters.
Table 3 Operational parameters of hot-fire tests
pC
(MPa)

Total flow rate

(kg/s)

Mixture
ratio

Repeat
times

C* efficiency
( C * )

2.09~2.12

2.029~2.056

6.04~6.14

99.2%~99.5%

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Igniter pressure

Fuel manifold

2.5

Oxidizer manifold

pC, MPa

2
1.5

Chamber pressure

1
0.5
0

t, s

Fig.13 The typical operational pressure curves

Fig. 14 Thermocouple temperature traces

(representative)
The same as the visualization method used in investigation of single-element condition, and the temperature
increments of the thermocouples versus the axial distance of cylinder were utilized to evaluate the heat flux
distributions and the heat environments of the chambers. And the increments of temperatures versus axial distances
are shown in Fig.15.
Because the distances between all the measurement points and the combustor inner wall were the same, and
according to theory of heat transfer, higher heat flux on the inner wall at axial location of measurement point
consequentially induces higher temperature raise at this point. Therefore, the raises of temperatures at these
measurement points during the firing were applied to evaluate qualitatively the heat flux on the inner wall. Figure 15
shows that the wall heat fluxes near the faceplate are the lowest in whole axial location. The region near the
faceplate has being been the focus of heat load investigation of a chamber, especially a long life chamber. For
instance, in developments the SSME and Fastrack engine, the inner liner near the faceplate ablated and had been
studied by great efforts. And then the heat fluxes along with the axial distance all increase due to more and more
fully combustion flows. These results indicate that the injectors all have the benign heat environments.
Photos of the post-test injectors are shown in Fig.16, by being compared with Fig.12, no ablation and over-heat
marks can be seen. Examining from the post-test combustors, non-overheat and non-ablation marks were found,
which further validates these injectors has benign heat environments and it is feasible to design the injector faceplate
without any cooling aids when using gaseous hydrogen and gaseous oxygen.
200

T, oC

180

160

140

120
10

40

70

100
x, mm

130

160

Fig.16 Photos of the post-test injectors

190

Fig.15 Temperature increments versus axial distance

for the injector

IV. Conclusion
The improved shear mixing elements, which has low oxidizer injection velocity, high injection velocity ratio
and flared O2 tip posts were tested in both single-element and multi-element conditions. The single-element tests
showed that this type of element can complete the combustion in the nominal combustor in a large flow rate
condition. The multi-element injector with seven this improved elements operated steadily, started up and shut down
smoothly without any stability aids. In the multi-element combustor designed with nominal parameters, the large
flow rate element can obtain high combustion performance in the flow rate of 3.7 times that of SSME main injector

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element. And the injector faceplate can not need any cooling aids when ambient O2/H2 are used, and showed a
benign the chamber wall heat compatibility. This effort laid the foundation for the future large gas-gas injector for
FFSC engine. The conclusions in this paper are not only suitable for FFSC engine, but also for those engine using
gaseous propellants.

Acknowledgments
The authors acknowledge the support of the state high-tech research and development fund. The authors also
thank Beijing Space propulsion experiment center. The authors also thank N. C. Zhu from institute No. 11 of
ministry of aerospace industry and thank W. Zhang and Sh. Li from Beijing West Zhonghang Technology Ltd. for
helps in designing the thermocouples. Finally, the authors thank all the people who made contribution and gave
much help to this paper.

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