| This body of work presents a unit physics investigation into the fundamental fluid mechanics of a single liquid rocket swirl injector element. In an effort to correspond with sub-scale combustion experiments, an assessment of spray structure and atomization was conducted as a function of steady-state chamber conditions. A cold flow experimental methodology was applied, whereby flow of liquid oxygen was simulated with de-ionized H 2O. The geometrically full-scale element was tested at chamber pressures ranging from 0.95-3.46 MPa (152.2-500 psia) -- correlating with expected characteristic exhaust velocity-efficiency values of 0.38-1.4. Over all tests, mass flow rate was held constant at the element's design point, 0.082 kgs (0.181 lbms ). Within this range of conditions, images of the spray were captured, and through objective analyses, qualitative and quantitative measurements of several spray features were resolved. To assess self-atomizing characteristics, Phase Doppler Particle Analysis experiments were conducted. Droplet velocity and diameter measurements were mapped to capture a spatial representation of droplet flow behavior across the spray envelope. |
