Several days ago it became known that Samara TsSKB "Progress" proposed a new engine for promising super-heavy launch vehicles, using liquefied natural gas as fuel. According to the latest reports of the domestic press, the Khimki NPO Energomash named after V. I. Academician V. P. Glushko. To improve performance, it is proposed to equip promising engines with a combustion chamber operating according to new principles.
The publication "Vzglyad", citing representatives of NPO Energomash, writes that the company has already developed a combustion chamber of an original design. An engine equipped with it will be able to significantly improve its performance - the estimated power increase reaches 10% compared to the engines currently in use. The new design of the combustion chamber makes it possible to use the principle of engine operation that has not yet been mastered in practice, namely the so-called. detonation combustion of fuel. The ideas underlying the new project were formulated by Academician Ya. B. Zeldovich several decades ago, but have not yet reached practical application in the rocket and space industry.
"Vzglyad" quotes the words of P. Lyovochkin, General Designer of NPO Energomash, according to which the basis for the new project was the developments of the late thirties of the last century. The specialist noted that the current level has reached the limit of the capabilities of liquid-propellant rocket engines, built according to traditional schemes. Working out various ways to further improve the performance of engines, the specialists of NPO Energomash began to study the chemical processes accompanying the operation of the power plant. In the course of these studies, the designers turned to the works of Ya. B. Zeldovich, in which interesting methods were proposed for increasing the characteristics of the engine, primarily detonation combustion.
The essence of detonation combustion is as follows: during combustion, a shock wave propagates through the fuel substance, initiating the combustion of new sections of the substance. The energy released during combustion, in turn, supports the shock wave. Many scientists have studied detonation combustion. At the end of the thirties, Ya. B. Zeldovich (USSR), J. von Neumann (USA) and W. Doering (Germany) almost simultaneously developed the same model of the phenomenon, later named after their names ZND. It is on these works that it is proposed to rely in the new project.
According to P. Lyovochkin, a promising rocket engine will use the so-called. spin detonation. This means that in one of the sections of the combustion chamber during its operation, there will be a shock wave rotating in a circle at a speed of up to 8 thousand revolutions per second. The design of a combustion chamber adapted for such work will hardly differ from existing systems. However, in its design, it is necessary to take into account the increased loads arising from the detonation of the fuel.
The use of detonation combustion of fuel will not only improve the performance of the engine, but also slightly reduce the dimensions of the combustion chamber. An increase in engine power by about 10% will have several positive consequences at once. For example, it will be possible to reduce the fuel supply or increase the payload of the launch vehicle. As a result, the flexibility of the missile can be significantly increased.
The timing of the appearance of the first launch vehicles with engines using the phenomenon of detonation combustion of fuel is still unknown. According to recent reports, a combustion chamber for a promising power plant has already been created. Apparently, in the foreseeable future, the construction of prototype engines will begin, which will later be used in tests. The operation of the new engines is likely to begin in the distant future - not earlier than the first half of the twenties, but it is too early to talk about the exact dates.
The prospects for the new engine are also not entirely clear. The proposed technologies make it possible to significantly improve the characteristics of engines, however, there is no talk of using new engines on launch vehicles. What kind of missiles will be equipped with promising engines developed by NPO Energomash has not yet been determined.
After the appearance of serial rocket engines based on the new technology of NPO Energomash im. Academician V. P. Glushko will once again confirm its status as one of the world's leading enterprises in the industry. One of the most famous developments of the enterprise are the RD-170 engines and the RD-180 developed on its basis. RD-180 in recent months has become the subject of controversy and even court hearings.
