Analytical model for liquid rocket propellant feedline dynamics

Abstract

A generalized analytical model and computer program have been developed to predict the frequency response of arbitrary liquid propellant feedline designs. The analytical model is based on an extension of an existing distributed parameter representation of a viscous fluid transmission line with laminar flow which was modified to include the effects of a turbulent mean flow. The effects of dissolved ullage gases, wall elasticity, localized gas or vapor bubbles, bellows, forced changes in length due to structural excitation, complex side branches, and structural mounting stiffness are also included. Each line component is written as a four-terminal, pressure-flow relationship in matrix form in the Laplace domain; the transfer function relating the pressure response at the line terminal (inducer inlet) to the external excitation is obtained in the computer program by sequential matrix substitution.