DISPLACEMENT SYSTEM FOR FILLING SPACE ROCKET WITH LIQUID METHANE Russian patent published in 2024 - IPC B64G5/00 

FIELD: rocket and space engineering.

SUBSTANCE: invention relates to aerospace engineering, particularly, to systems for filling space rockets with liquid methane and liquefied natural gas. Displacement system for filling space rocket with liquid methane comprises a cryogenic working tank of liquid methane and a liquid nitrogen tank, a cryogenic drain tank, liquid methane cooler, circulation circuits of liquid methane thermostating in the working tank and in the space rocket fuel tank, a heat-insulated filling line equipped with a heat-insulated shutoff and control valves, lines for discharge of methane drains from working tank of liquid methane and from fuel tank of space rocket, phlegmatisers of methane drains. Liquid methane cooler is located between the working methane tank and the filling line and is filled with liquid nitrogen with temperature above the methane crystallization point, but below its boiling point at atmospheric pressure. Filling line along its entire length is equipped with nitrogen screen arranged between liquid methane pipeline and heat insulation and filled with liquid nitrogen, for the supply of which it is hydraulically connected to the liquid methane cooler. Shut-off and control valves of the filling line under its heat insulation are equipped with flow-through heat exchangers hydraulically connected to a nitrogen screen. Cryogenic drain tank has two compartments filled with liquid nitrogen with temperature below the methane crystallisation point, one of which is designed to receive liquid methane drains, and the second is equipped in its lower part with a collector for inlet and spraying of methane and methane-containing gas mixtures in liquid nitrogen. Filling line and its nitrogen screen on the section between the methane cooler and the space rocket are a heat exchanger of the thermostatting circuit of the methane in the space rocket fuel tank. Cryogenic nitrogen tank is hydraulically connected to a cryogenic working tank of liquid methane and a drain tank for supplying liquid nitrogen thereto.

EFFECT: reduced level of danger at launching complex.

3 cl, 1 dwg