SPRAY CONE ANGLE AND AIR CORE DIAMETER OF HOLLOW CONE SWIRL ROCKET INJECTOR

Fuel injector for liquid rocket is a very critical component since that small difference in its design can dramatically affect the combustion efficiency. The primary function of the injector is to break the fuel up into very small droplets. The smaller droplets are necessary for fast quiet ignition and to establish a flame front close to the injector head, thus shorter combustion chamber is possible to be utilized. This paper presents an experimetal investigation of a mono-propellant hollow cone swirl injector. Several injectors with different configuration were investigated under cold flow test, where water is used as simulation fluid. This investigation reveals that higher injection pressure leads to higher spray cone angle. The effect of injection pressure on spray cone angle is more prominent for injector with least number of tangential ports. Furthermore, it was found that injector with the most number of tangential ports and with the smallest tangential port diameter produces the widest resulting spray. Experimental data also tells that the diameter of an air core that forms inside the swirl chamber is largest for the injector with smallest tangential port diameter and least number of tangential ports.