Spray characteristics of jet–swirl nozzles for thrust chamber injector

Thrust chamber injector is very critical component since that small differences in its design can result in dramatically different performance. This paper presents a preliminary investigation of a mono-propellant jet–swirl nozzle for thrust chamber using the existing commercial nozzle made of brass with little modification. The performance of two types of spray pattern, i.e. hollow cone and solid cone were investigated under cold flow test. Two solid cone injectors were studied at various purely axial orifice diameter with all other parameters remaining constant. This investigation reveals that decrease in the breakup length increased the spray angle. Higher injection pressure leads to shorter breakup length and higher value of discharge coefficient, except for hollow cone nozzle which shows mild fluctuating trend. Experimental data also tells that solid cone nozzle with diameter ratio 0.14 has the highest average discharge coefficient (0.60), followed by hollow cone nozzle (0.25). Solid cone nozzle with diameter ratio of 0.1 has an average discharge coefficient of 0.21.