J051022Investigation of turbine efficiency improvement for future generation rocket engine

Abstract

In rocket turbopumps, turbine has a significant influence on cycle feasibility and engine performance, and there exists a strong demand for further improvement in efficiency. However, typical turbine designs of current rocket engines do not operate with high efficiency due to stringent requirements for compactness and high pressure ratio, which result in increased stage loading and shock losses in case of supersonic turbine. In the present study, improvement in efficiency has been attempted by numerical shape optimization of turbine blades using an approach based on evolutionary algorithms.