Design and Testing of a Demonstrator Electric-Pump Feed System for Liquid Propellant Rocket Engines

The construction of an experimental test rig of an electric-pump feed system for liquid-propellant rocket engines is discussed, focusing in particular on the choice of the different components, and the evaluation of their suitability. Most components are chosen off-the-shelf, yet they are proven to result in an efficient, lightweight design. However, the propellant pumps are found to require instead a customized design for actual inflight applications. Unlike other components, the injection plate is designed and machined ad hoc for the present test bench. It features a single pentad injector to accomodate for the widely different flowrates of oxidizer and fuel. Hydraulic oil is used instead of the actual propellants due to restrictions deriving from adopting off-the-shelf pumps, which however is likely to entail limitations not greater than those associated with standard water testing of liquid-propellant rocket injection plates. The five jets are found to intersect positively. The characteristic curves and relationships of the oxidizer and fuel hydraulic circuits are also shown and discussed.