NASA SBIR 2005 Solicitation

SMALL BUSINESS CONCERN (Firm Name, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Combustion Research and Flow Technology,
6210 Kellers Church Road
Pipersville, PA 18947-1020
(215) 766-1520

PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR/PROJECT MANAGER (Name, E-mail, Mail Address, City/State/Zip, Phone)
Ashvin   Hosangadi
hosangad@craft-tech.com
6210 Keller's Church Road
Pipersville, PA  18947-1020
(215) 766-1520

TECHNICAL ABSTRACT (Limit 2000 characters, approximately 200 words)
The proposed effort addresses a current need for high fidelity simulation tools to support the design and analysis of combustion devices for the Constellation program and Exploration Mission that includes earth-to-orbit, upper stage, as well as in-space propulsion systems. Injector designs are a critical component of robust thrust chamber assembly designs since they impact combustion chamber instability and its transient response. Inadequate injector designs have been the cause of major failures during engine development of all earlier liquid rocket systems including the SSME; the root cause for this may be attributed to the use of relatively simple empirically based, one-dimensional tools in the design process that are incapable of identifying localized failures driven by three-dimensional geometry and physics effects. The proposed three-dimensional, CFD tool will focus on rigorous modeling of the mixing and combustion processes in cryogenic liquid-gas injectors that operate in the trans-critical and sub-critical regime and exhibit strong non-linear sensitivities to real fluid thermodynamics, as well as turbulent mixing effects. The advanced models developed will permit improved predictions of combustion chamber mean heat flux and localized peaks, as well as lay the foundation for predicting unsteady response of the injector and its coupling to the feed system dynamics.

POTENTIAL NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words)
The product at the end of our Phase II effort will be a high-fidelity, numerical simulation software (CRUNCH CFD^REG code) that would predict the performance of cryogenic liquid-gas injectors, provide design support by supplementing current empirical tools, and facilitate trade studies/ sensitivity analyses of advanced propulsion concepts. Our product addresses core needs of NASA such as the development of the upper-stage J2-X, and the lunar descent module. These systems will be required to throttle down to very low-power levels spanning trans-critical and sub-critical regimes where current design tools are unreliable. The proposed tool would significantly enhance current capabilities and provide accurate simulations of injector performance and heat transfer characteristics in an efficient manner so as to be useful within a design cycle timeline. The technology developed here would directly impact analysis of the injectors used in the J-2X gas generator system as well as the main injector for the TCA.

POTENTIAL NON-NASA COMMERCIAL APPLICATIONS (Limit 1500 characters, approximately 150 words)
The commercial market for our product is very large and includes the broad market of injectors for diesel engines, gas turbines and other industrial combustor applications. In addition to these traditional markets, commercial space ventures ranging from space transportation systems (COTS) for the international space station (ISS), to low-cost satellite launch systems are getting an infusion of venture capital and would be receptive to accurate simulation tools. The primary market of the diesel engine is large and includes marine engines, trucks and automobiles, as well as heavy industrial engines. With rising energy costs, a primary concern for these companies is the design of newer more efficient injector systems that provide improved mixing and combustion, and the technology being developed here for high-pressure, regimes would be directly applicable. This technology is also relevant to gas-turbines where the design of combustors to meet lower NOx emissions is an area of active development.

NASA's technology taxonomy has been developed by the SBIR-STTR program to disseminate awareness of proposed and awarded R/R&D in the agency. It is a listing of over 100 technologies, sorted into broad categories, of interest to NASA.

TECHNOLOGY TAXONOMY MAPPING

Chemical Feed System Components Fluid Storage and Handling Fundamental Propulsion Physics Launch Assist (Electromagnetic, Hot Gas and Pneumatic) Simulation Modeling Environment