Abstract: A rocket engine system including a coolant source containing a coolant fuel. The coolant source for providing the coolant fuel to a first surface of a wall partially defining a combustion chamber of a rocket engine, and the coolant fuel provides film cooling of the first surface of the wall. An oxidizer source for providing an oxidizer to a second surface of the wall. A monitor configured to control flow of the coolant fuel and the oxidizer, and to ensure that a stoichiometry of a combination of the coolant fuel and the oxidizer, after the coolant fuel has completed the film cooling of the first surface of the wall, is appropriate for generating a combustion of the combination of the coolant fuel and the oxidizer.

Abstract: A gas turbine engine includes a main compressor section and a main turbine section. A cooling air supply system cools a location in at least one of the main compressor section and the main turbine section. The cooling air supply system includes a tap for tapping cooling air compressed by the main compressor section, connected for passing the cooling air through a heat exchanger and to a boost compressor, and then to the cooling location in the at least one of the main compressor section and the main turbine section. A fuel supply system has a fuel tank for delivering fuel to a fuel pump. At least one valve for selectively returning fuel downstream of the main pump back to an upstream location. At least one return turbine drives at least one fluid moving device in the air cooling system.

Abstract: In order to reduce computation time and cost involved with determining one or more optimal parameters for a pre-cooling strategy, for a modeled system, a two-step genetic algorithms is used to optimize energy consumption of the modeled system with respect to cost of the energy consumption. A first step of the two-step genetic algorithms determines a population of potential solutions that are used to initialize a second step of the two-step genetic algorithm. The second step of the two-step genetic algorithm determines the one or more optimal parameters for the pre-cooling strategy from the population output by the first genetic algorithm.

Abstract: A method for producing a heated fluid for use within an engine for propulsion of a vehicle is described. The method includes receiving cooled fluid from a fluid source, directing the cooled fluid between a first window configured to operate as a structural member of the engine and a second window configured to separate the cooled fluid from a heated fluid, passing an electromagnetic beam through the first window and the second window, absorbing the passed electromagnetic beam with a heat exchanger within the engine, and directing the cooled fluid through the heat exchanger to become heated fluid.

Abstract: The fluid and heat transfer theory for regenerative cooling of a rocket combustion chamber with a porous media coolant jacket is presented. This model is used to design a regeneratively cooled rocket or other high temperature engine cooling jacket. Cooling jackets comprising impermeable inner and outer walls, and porous media channels are disclosed. Also disclosed are porous media coolant jackets with additional structures designed to transfer heat directly from the inner wall to the outer wall, and structures designed to direct movement of the coolant fluid from the inner wall to the outer wall. Methods of making such jackets are also disclosed.

Abstract: A system, methods, and user-friendly program product to optimize energy recovery for a process or cluster of processes under all possible combinations of given process changes and stream-specific minimum temperature approach values without enumeration, are provided. The systems, methods, and program product can include steps/operations to identify a set of common-structure heat exchanger network designs which allow for construction of a physically exchanger network easily retrofittable to accommodate time-dependent new operating modes, disturbances, and uncertainty schemes.

Abstract: A method for using a heat exchange system in operating equipment in which a working fluid is utilized in providing selected operations thereof, including for use in lubricating systems for aircraft turbofan engine equipment, the heat exchange system for providing air and working fluid heat exchanges to cool the working fluid at selectively variable rates in the operating equipment developed airstreams. A heat exchanger core is provided in a controlled air flow duct system opening at its entrance to those airstreams and having its outlet end opening downstream in those airstreams.

Abstract: In some implementations a propulsion system includes a thrust chamber comprised of a combustion chamber and an expansion nozzle. The thrust chamber has an interior and exterior surfaces and a main propellant injector mounted to the thrust chamber to inject an oxidizer and a fuel into the interior of the thrust chamber. The total fluid flowing to the rocket engine is compromised of oxidizer, fuel, internal film coolant, and external convective coolant. The internal film coolant ranges from about 1% to about 10% of the total fluid. Reduced coolant tubing circumscribes the exterior of the thrust chamber to circulate an external convective coolant, and a nozzle film coolant manifold mounted to the expansion nozzle injects the external convective coolant onto the interior wall of the expansion nozzle, the external convective coolant being about 1% to about 10% of the total fluid flow to the thrust chamber.

Abstract: One embodiment is directed to a method for testing an aircraft prior to flight. The method includes receiving a user signal from a pre-flight test input source, the user signal indicating that a pilot of the aircraft has directed engine control circuitry, which is arranged to electronically control operation of a set of piston engines of the aircraft during flight, to begin testing the aircraft in an automated manner. The method includes, in response to the user signal, conducting a pre-flight test of the aircraft from the engine control circuitry. The method includes, upon completion of the pre-flight test, outputting a result of the pre-flight test from the engine control circuitry.

Abstract: A system, methods, and user-friendly program product to optimize energy recovery for a process or cluster of processes under all possible combinations of given process changes and stream-specific minimum temperature approach values without enumeration, are provided. The systems, methods, and program product can include steps/operations to synthesize multiple heat exchanger network designs according to different process variations schemes, analyze the impact of process variations on each heat exchanger network, and identify which design provides a more optimal heat exchanger network design and which process variation scheme represents a more optimal flexibility index.

Abstract: Systems, methods, and program product to synthesize a grass-roots heat exchanger network for non-thermodynamically constrained problems for a plurality of hot process streams to be cooled and a plurality of cold process streams to be heated according to a plurality of utilities targets, are provided. An exemplary system includes a heat exchange network synthesizing computer and heat exchange network synthesizing program product configured to analyze the waste heat recovery problem without decomposition to produce a result having an optimal number of network heat exchanger units through application of advanced process-to-process matching schemes for non-thermodynamically constrained problems.

Abstract: A system, methods, and user-friendly program product to optimize energy recovery or a process or cluster of processes under all possible process changes and stream-specific minimum temperature approach values without enumeration, are provided. The program product can utilize stream-specific minimum temperature approach values ?Tmini, where the superscript i represents the specific hot stream, as the optimization parameters instead of the single global ?Tmin currently used, in addition to identifying the optimal operating conditions. The program product can determine optimal global minimum energy utility values and define optimal process conditions and an optimal driving force distribution in heat recovery systems, and can produce an optimal Pareto-curve that shows the rigorous trade off between energy cost and capital cost for any energy recovery system.

Abstract: The invention of this disclosure is methods and apparatuses improving the ease of fabrication and delivered specific impulse performance of simplified rocket engine thrust chambers. Included are a method and apparatus for a pool-boiling cooling system rocket thrust chamber. This cooling system utilizes a convective coolant flowing in a continuous or semi-continuous coolant loop. In addition the convective coolant itself is cooled in a pool-boiling heat exchanger by the evaporation of a propellant that functions as a boiling coolant. The invention also includes a method and apparatus for a shortened, simplified, conical expansion nozzle for a rocket thrust chamber that can operate with reduced specific impulse losses due to nozzle configuration and the use of film coolant in the thrust chamber.

Abstract: A coolant system for a rocket propulsion system having a rocket engine and a propellant tank includes a first heat exchanger that is operatively coupled to the rocket engine. The cooling system also includes a second heat exchanger that is operatively coupled to the propellant tank, a coolant tank that is configured to hold a coolant, and a pump. The cooling system also includes a flow circuit, through which the coolant flows with the aid of the pump. The flow circuit is defined by the pump, the first heat exchanger, the second heat exchanger and the coolant tank. The coolant is pumped by the pump from the coolant tank to the first heat exchanger. The heat of combustion from the rocket engine is transferred to the coolant to cool the rocket engine. The heated coolant transfers the heat therein to the propellant with the second heat exchanger, thereby causing a pressure of the propellant in the propellant tank to be maintained at a desired level.

Abstract: Systems, methods, and program product to calculate global energy utility targets and to model and determine an optimal solution for a non-thermodynamically constrained process or cluster of processes subject to non-thermodynamic constraints under all possible process changes and streams specific minimum temperature approaches, are provided. An exemplary system can utilize thermodynamic constraints exhibited in stream-specific minimum temperature approach values ?Tmini as optimization parameters, in addition to other process conditions degrees of freedom including the addition of new waste heat carrier streams to target for minimizing energy consumption of the non-thermodynamic constrained waste heat recovery problem and to identify the optimal operating conditions that result in desired minimum energy consumption subject to the non-thermodynamic constraints.

Abstract: A system, methods, and user-friendly program product to calculate global energy utility targets and define optimal driving force distribution for a process or cluster of processes under all possible process changes and streams specific minimum temperature approach values, simultaneously, and without enumeration, are provided. The program product can utilize stream-specific minimum temperature approach values ?Tmini, where the superscript i represents the specific hot stream, as the optimization parameters instead of the single global ?Tmin currently used, in addition to identifying the optimal operating conditions. The program product can define optimal process conditions and an optimal driving force distribution in heat recovery systems, and can produce an optimal Pareto-curve that shows the rigorous trade off between energy cost and capital cost for any energy recovery system.

Abstract: A thrust chamber assembly cooling system includes a twisted ribbon/wire of any one of many variety of cross-sectional shapes located within a nozzle assembly cooling passage to direct the coolant to flow in a swirling manner which induces mixing and breaks up the boundary layer in the coolant passage to enhance the convective heat transfer.

Abstract: A heat exchange system for use in lubricating systems for aircraft turbofan engine equipment in which a lubricant is provided under pressure to spaces bounded at least in part by surfaces moving relative to one another, the heat exchange system for providing air and lubricant heat exchanges to cool the lubricant at selectively variable rates in the engine fan airstreams. A heat exchanger core is provided in a controlled air flow duct system opening at its plural entrances to the engine fan airstreams and having its outlet end opening about at the end of the fan duct nozzle.

Abstract: A fuel based thermal management system includes a fuel stabilization system which permits the fuel to exceed the traditional coking temperatures. High temperature components are arranged along the fuel flow path such that even at the higher operating temperatures the fuel operates as a heat sink to transfer heat from high temperature components to the fuel. An optimal high temperature ester-based oil permits an oil-loop to exceed current oil temperature limits and achieve a high temperature to permit efficient rejection of heat to the fuel late in the fuel flow path.

Abstract: An apparatus and method are provided for decomposition of a propellant. The propellant includes an ionic salt and an additional fuel. Means are provided for decomposing a major portion of the ionic salt. Means are provided for combusting the additional fuel and decomposition products of the ionic salt.

Abstract: In a supersonic nozzle incorporating injectors and a combustion chamber as part of an expander cycle rocket engine, the oxidizer is injected in two streams. One of the streams, preferably a small fraction of the total, is injected into an upstream or preburner section of the combustion chamber and the other to a downstream or main section of the chamber. The preburner combustion gas is cooled in a substantially uniform manner to a moderate temperature by cooling the bulk of the gas rather than cooling only the gas in a boundary layer adjacent to the chamber wall. The combustion gas produced in the downstream section is hotter, and heat from that gas is drawn through the chamber wall into a jacket. The limited combustion in the preburner permits the use of a cooling element with highly intimate heat exchange construction, extracting a high level of energy from the preburner gas without damage to the cooling element and an overall improvement in the regenerative cooling.

Abstract: Thrust-chamber assembly has an expansion nozzle and a combustion-chamber wall, to which an ejector head is affixed. The part of the combustion-chamber wall adjacent to the injector head comprising a precombustion-chamber wall, in which the combustible materials delivered to the assembly first form a cooling film. There is a heat-conducting layer in at least one area of the outside of the precombustion-chamber wall and in addition, it has a covering of platinum or gold.

Abstract: Nitrogen oxides emitted by an internal-combustion engine operated with excess air are normally converted by the method of selective catalytic reduction by bringing the nitrogen oxides, together with ammonia, into contact with a selective catalyst. Due to the dangers associated with the use of ammonia, in a motor vehicle ammonia should only be carried in the form of a substance which liberates ammonia, generally an aqueous urea solution. A method and a device for introducing liquid into an exhaust-gas purification system according to the invention avoids frost damage to sections of the system during shutdown times and permits operation of the system at temperatures below the freezing point of the reducing agent solution being used. The method and device include a (thermally insulated) reservoir for the reducing agent liquid and a liquid supply line which is connected thereto and terminates in an outlet opening for the liquid. The reservoir and the liquid supply line can be heated.

Abstract: A reduction in the emission of infrared radiation by the engine of a jet aircraft can be achieved by employing a low molecular weight monohydric alcohol, having a luminometer number of at least about 200 as at least a portion of the fuel. Additional reduction in emission of infrared radiation can be achieved by passing a low molecular weight monohydric alcohol in indirect heat exchange relationship with the hot exhaust nozzle prior to its introduction to the combustion chamber of the engine.

Abstract: Disclosed is a rocket engine having a low operating mode in which propellants are provided to the combustion chamber by the combined effect of boost pumps and the pressure differential between the propellant tanks and the combustion chamber, and a high operating mode in which primary pumps further increase the pressure at which propellant is provided to the combustion chamber.

Abstract: The present invention provides for the integration of structural cooling and fuel treatment within hypersonic vehicles. This is achieved by channeling a hydrocarbon fuel to a portion of the aircraft structure and imparting via the heat sink effect sufficient heat to cause a pyrolysis of the hydrocarbon fuel. After pyrolysis, the resulting fractions are then utilized as a fuel by the vehicle.

Abstract: A propulsion system and method having means for cooling the combustor liner and throat liner of a rocket casing by endothermic pyrolysis of a hydrocarbon fuel in the fuel passageway which is adjacent to and surrounding the combustor liner and the throat liner. Means is provided for high heat flux to the combustor liner and throat liner from combustion within the rocket casing whereby the temperature of the liners exceeds their thermal limits. Catalyst means are utilized for the endothermic pyrolysis. Hydrocarbon fuel is passed through the fuel passageway; heat is provided from the combustion of fuel in the combustion chamber to the fuel passageway by radiation through the combustor liner and the throat liner; and the hydrocarbon fuel is heated at a temperature sufficient to cause the endothermic pyrolysis of the hydrocarbon in the fuel passageway.

Abstract: In a propulsion system which includes a rocket casing having a combustor chamber with a combustor liner and a nozzle throat chamber with a nozzle throat liner; a fuel passageway adjacent to and surrounding the combustor liner and nozzle throat liner which form the inner wall of the fuel passageway, the outerwall of the fuel passageway being spaced from the innerwall to form the passageway, a plurality of flow directing vances disposed in the fuel passageway to direct the fuel in the fuel passageway circumferentially. In the propulsion system, the fuel travels a longer path through the passageway, and the residence time of fuel in the passageway is increased to promote heat transfer to the fuel in the passageway. A plurality of fuel injection holes in the combustor liner are also arranged so that fuel is injected into the combustion chamber in a direction which promotes circumferential motion of the fuel.

Abstract: A propulsion system which utilizes hydrocarbon and hydrogen fuel, having means for cooling of the combustor liner and throat liner of a rocket casing by endothermic pyrolysis of the hydrocarbon in the presence of hydrogen in the fuel passageway. The hydrogen in the fuel accelerates the rate of endothermic pyrolysis in the fuel passageway which is adjacent to and surrounds the combustor liner and the throat liner. Means is also provided for high heat flux to the combustor liner and throat liner from combustion within the rocket casing so that the temperature of the liners exceeds their thermal limits. By the propulsion system and method, hydrocarbon fuel and hydrogen are passed through the fuel passageway which is adjacent to and surrounds the combustor liner and the throat liner in a rocket casing, and heat from the combustion of fuel and hydrogen in the combustion chamber is provided to the fuel passageway by radiation through the combustor liner and the throat liner.

Abstract: The specification discloses a method and apparatus for generating electricity which substantially eliminates the problem of acid rain as well as the problems associated with nuclear and hydroelectric power. Scrap aluminum and ferric oxide are reacted in a combustion chamber. The heat of the reaction as well as the heat of molten iron flowing from the combustion chamber heats boilers, the generated gas of which is used to drive electric generators. The iron is reoxidized, with the heat of reoxidation also being used to heat boilers which drive generators. The reoxidized iron is then recycled into the combustion chamber.