METHOD OF ALTITUDE TESTS OF LARGE-SIZE SOLID PROPELLANT ROCKET ENGINE AND PLANT FOR ITS REALISATION Russian patent published in 2013 - IPC F02K9/96 G01M15/14 

FIELD: engines and pumps.

SUBSTANCE: during altitude tests of a rocket engine, underpressure is pulled by preliminary vacuumising of the space around the engine, ejecting properties of a combustion products jet in a diffuser and injection of additional gas into an exhaust manifold. The diffuser start-up is provided to the moment until a reflected wave of combustion products compression reaches it. In case of pressure drop in the rocket engine, the additional gas is injected into the exhaust manifold, directly downstream the diffuser, providing for variation of its flow in inverse ratio to variation of the combustion products consumption. Then consumption of injected gas is gradually reduced to zero. Gas for injection is compressed air of high pressure. A plant for altitude tests comprises a pressure chamber for placement of rocket engine in it with a pressure sensor in a combustion chamber, a system of preliminary air pumping, an exhaust manifold with a diffuser, a system of gas injection with a source of gas and manifolds for its supply to the injecting facility and a flap plug. In the exhaust manifold at the outlet from the diffuser a header of larger diameter is installed with length of 125-150 m. The zone of diffuser and header contact is equipped with a chamber separating it from the environment. The injecting facility is arranged between the diffuser and the header and is made in the form of nozzles or in the form of a circular injector, the function of which is performed by a through gap between the diffuser and the header, or in the form of perforation of a closed gap between the diffuser and the header. The source of injected gas represents cylinders with compressed gas, and flow rate controllers are mounted on manifolds of compressed air supply to the injecting facility. Drives of flow rate controllers are connected by electric circuits serially with a setter of compressed air flow, a pressure alarm, a signal delay relay and a pressure sensor in a combustion chamber of a rocket engine.

EFFECT: inventions make it possible to provide for reliable preservation of integrity of thin-walled nozzles for the entire time of rocket engine operation, with simplification of a testing plant.

2 cl, 4 dwg