Experiments on heat transfer in a cryogenic engine thrust chamber

Tests are conducted on a cryogenic engine using liquid oxygen as oxidizer and gaseous hydrogen as fuel with water as a coolant. The coolant flow passage of the thrust chamber is of milled channel configuration. Measured heat transfer results compare well with those predicted by a thermal analysis using the standard Bartz correlation and the Hess and Kunz correlation for hot gas side and coolant side heat transfer coefficients, respectively. This confirms the conclusions of a recent theoretical study by the authors in which a comparison of various heat transfer correlations was made.