Dual-throat thruster thermal model

The dual-throat engine is one of the dual nozzle engine concepts studied for advanced space transportation applications. It provides a thrust change and an in-flight area ratio change through the use of two concentric combustors with their throats arranged in series. Test results are presented for a dual throat thruster burning gaseous oxygen and hydrogen at primary (inner) chamber pressures from 380 to 680 psia. Heat flux profiles were obtained from calorimetric cooling channels in the inner nozzle, outer or secondary chamber and the tip of the inner nozzle. Data were obtained for two nozzle spacings over a chamber pressure ratio (secondary/primary) range of 0.45 to 0.83 with both chambers firing (Mode I). Fluxes near the end of the inner nozzle were significantly higher than in Mode II when only the inner chamber was fired, due to the flow separation and recirculation caused by the back pressure imposed by the secondary chamber. As the pressure ratio increased, these heat fluxes increased and the region of high heat flux relative to Mode II extended farther upstream. The use of the gaseous hydrogen bleed flow in the secondary chamber to control heat fluxes in the primary plume attachment region was investigated in Mode II testing. A thermal model of a dual throat thruster was developed and upgraded using the experimental data.