OJSC NPO Energomash
141400, Russia, Khimki, Moscow region, Burdenko st., 1
Open joint stock company"NPO Energomash named after academician V.P. Glushko" - leading enterprise in the world to develop powerful liquid rocket engines for space launch vehicles. The company was founded on May 15, 1929. NPO Energomash developed about 60 liquid propellant engines, which were mass-produced and operated and continue to be used as part of space and combat launch vehicles.
Currently, the main programs of the enterprise are:
- Serial production of modernized liquid propellant engines RD-171M for the first stage of the Zenit launch vehicle (Sea Launch, Land Launch, Federal Space Program)
- Serial production of the RD-180 liquid rocket engine for the first stages of the American Atlas 5 launch vehicle
- Development of the RD-191 liquid rocket engine for the first stages of the family of new Russian Angara launch vehicles
- Modernization and supervision of serial production of the RD-107 and RD-108 (14D22 and 14D21) family of liquid propellant engines for the first and second stages of the Soyuz launch vehicle in Samara
- Modernization and designer's supervision of the serial production of the modernized liquid propellant rocket engine RD-253 (14D14M) for the first stage of the Proton launch vehicle in Perm
- Modernization and designer's supervision of the RD-120 liquid-propellant rocket engine for the second stage of the Zenit launch vehicle (Sea Launch program, Land Launch program, Federal Space Program)
In addition, the company is working on promising areas for improving liquid propellant engines:
- Study of the concept of reusable rocket engines
- Study of the concept of liquid propellant rocket engine with a closed loop turbine drive
- Engine design work for spacecraft using solar energy
- Increasing the reliability of rocket engines
- Research into the use of liquefied natural gas(methane) as fuel in liquid rocket engines
- Project of a three-component dual-mode liquid propellant rocket engine (oxygen-kerosene-hydrogen)
- Research of stress-strain states of rocket engine components and assemblies
NPO Energomash has accumulated vast experience in creating liquid propellant engines, owning unique technologies provides a favorable basis for cooperation with various aerospace organizations and companies around the world.
NPO Energomash is ready to develop a liquid rocket engine in accordance with technical requirements customer in as soon as possible and at the highest scientific and technical level.
The development of the RD-170 and RD-171 engines for the first stages of the Energia launch vehicle and the Zenit launch vehicle, respectively, began in 1976. Their development became a qualitatively new step in the creation of liquid propellant rocket engines. The world's most powerful four-chamber liquid propellant engine has the highest level of parameters and characteristics for engines of this class, and runs on environmentally friendly fuel components: liquid oxygen and kerosene. The engine for the Energia launch vehicle is designed for reusable and certified for 10-fold use. One of the engine copies was tested on a firing stand up to 20 times. The engine is characterized by high operational reliability, maintainability and testability and has a large service life (at least 5). The engine thrust vector is controlled by creating a unique bellows unit for swinging chambers, operating in the zone of high-temperature gas flow. The engines passed about 900 fire tests with a total operating time of over 100,000 seconds.
The first launch of the Zenit launch vehicle with the RD-171 engine was carried out in April 1985. In 1987 and 1988, launches of the Energia launch vehicle with the RD-170 engines took place. Since 1999, the operation of RD-171 engines has continued as part of the Zenit 3 SL launch vehicle under the Sea Launch program.
Main parameters of the RD-170/171 engine family
Fuel - oxygen + kerosene
|
Engine Modifications |
RD -170 |
RD-171 |
RD-171M |
| Thrust, earth / void, tf | 740 / 806 | 740 / 806 | 740 / 806 |
| Specific impulse, ground / void, sec | 309 / 337 | 309 / 337 | 309 / 337 |
| Pressure in the combustion chamber, kgf/cm 2 | 250 | 250 | 250 |
| Weight, dry/filled, kg | 9750 / 10750 | 9500 / 10500 | 9300 / 10300 |
| Dimensions, height / diameter, mm | 4000 / 3800 | 4150 / 3565 | 4150 / 3565 |
| Development period | 1976-1988 | 1976 – 1986 | 1992 – 1996 2003 - 2004 |
| Purpose | RN "Energia" | LV "Zenith" | LV "Zenith" |
The basic RD-170/171 engine was developed in 1976-1986. In 1992-1996. work was carried out on an uprated version of the RD-171 engine (by 1996, 28 engines had been tested). On 6 engines of an improved design, the operating time was 5500 seconds, and on one engine the operating time was 1590 seconds.
Work on upgrading the RD-171 engine for use in the Sea Launch program continued in 2003-2004. Certification of the RD-171M engine was completed on July 5, 2004 - 8 tests lasting 1093.6 seconds were carried out on the certification engine, with the last test (above the plan) at 105% mode. The first commercial RD-171M engine was delivered to Ukraine on March 25, 2004 after a technical test lasting 140 seconds.
Serial production of the RD-171M engine is carried out at the NPO ENERGOMASH plant in Khimki.
At the beginning of 1996, the RD-180 engine project of NPO Energomash was recognized as the winner of the competition for the development and supply of the first stage engine for the modernized Atlas launch vehicle. American company Lockheed Martin. This is a two-chamber engine with afterburning of oxidizing generator gas, with thrust vector control due to the swing of each chamber in two planes, with the ability to provide deep throttling of the engine thrust in flight. This design is based on well-tested designs of components and elements of the RD-170/171 engines. The creation of a powerful first-stage engine was carried out in a short time, and testing was carried out using a small amount of material. Having signed a contract for the development of the engine in the summer of 1996, already in November 1996 the first fire test of the prototype engine was carried out, and in April 1997 the fire test of the standard engine was carried out. In 1997-1998, a series of fire tests of the engine as part of the launch vehicle stage was successfully carried out in the USA. In the spring of 1999, certification of the engine for use in the Atlas 3 launch vehicle was completed. The first launch of the Atlas 3 launch vehicle with the RD-180 engine took place in May 2000. In the summer of 2001, certification of the engine for use in the Atlas 5 launch vehicle was completed. The first flight of the Atlas 5 launch vehicle with the RD-180 engine took place in August 2002.
Main parameters of the RD-180 engine
Liquid rocket engine with afterburning oxidizing gas
Fuel oxygen + kerosene
Lockheed Martin has announced its intention to order at least 101 RD-180 engines for use in the Atlas 3 and Atlas 5 launch vehicles. The marketing and sale of this engine to the customer, Lockheed Martin, is handled by the joint venture RD AMROSS, created by NPO Energomash and Pratt-Whitney (USA). Over 30 commercial engines have already been supplied to the United States, and 14 launches of Atlas 3 and Atlas 5 launch vehicles with RD-180 engines in the first stage have been completed.
The development of the RD-191 engine began at the end of 1998. This engine with afterburning oxidizing gas is intended for the family of domestic Angara and Baikal launch vehicles. The design of this engine is also based on the design of the RD-170/171 engines. The RD-191 engine is a single-chamber liquid propellant engine with a vertically located fuel pump. During 1999 it was released design documentation, in 2000, autonomous testing of the RD-191 engine units began, and preparation for production was completed. In May 2001, the first development engine RD-191 was assembled. The first fire test of the RD-191 engine was carried out in July 2001.
Main parameters of the RD-191 engine
Liquid rocket engine with afterburning oxidizing gas
Fuel oxygen + kerosene
As of 01.08.06, over 35 fire tests of the engine were carried out with a total operating time of 4500 seconds. The maximum time for one test is 400 seconds. The engine test results confirmed the main engine parameters included in terms of reference. Engine testing is carried out in accordance with the experimental testing program, which provides for its completion on 10 copies of the engine with an operating time of over 15,000 seconds during over 70 fire tests. The basic principle of such a program is a small number of engines and a large operating time on each instance with the maximum number of measurements.
LIQUID ROCKET ENGINE RD-191
14.06.2016
The Russian NPO Energomash plans to double the production volume of RD-191 engines for Angara launch vehicles in 2017, said the company’s general director Igor Arbuzov.
“The testing stage of the Angara launch vehicle has begun, the number of orders for the RD-191 has increased. Consequently, NPO Energomash must double its production volumes (in 2016 - 22 engines, in 2017 - 40),” the corporate publication of NPO Energomash quotes him as saying.
According to him, in order to fulfill the order, the company will have to increase its workforce. labor force in production for 250-300 people.
TASS
16.04.2019
Problems with low-frequency vibrations of the RD191 engines for the Russian Angara launch vehicle have been resolved, said Pyotr Levochkin, chief designer of NPO Energomash, in an interview with Interfax.
“We have introduced a number of solutions into the engine design to suppress these low-frequency oscillations and have achieved with the Khrunichev Center that these measures allow the engine to operate normally and meet the technical specifications,” said P. Levochkin.
This is how he commented on media reports that appeared in January of this year that the vibrations of the RD191 engine occurring during the launch of the Angara rocket could lead to its destruction.
The agency's interlocutor explained that low-frequency vibrations arose due to extremely difficult conditions for power plant rocket mode, when the engine of the central block of the first stage operates at only 30% power to save fuel.
“RD191 is unique. On the Angara-A5, the engine of the central block, while the side engines are working, should operate in a gentle mode, saving fuel. For this rocket, a 30 percent deep throttling mode was chosen,” said P. Levochkin.
Interfax-AVN
LIQUID ROCKET ENGINE RD-191
Development of the RD-191 engine began at the end of 1998. This engine with afterburning oxidizing gas is intended for the Angara family of domestic launch vehicles. The engine design is based on the design of the RD-170/171 engines.
RD-191 is a single-chamber liquid propellant engine with a vertically located turbopump unit. During 1999, design documentation was released, in 2000, autonomous testing of the RD-191 engine units began and preparation for production was completed. In May 2001, the first development engine was assembled. The first fire test of the RD-191 was carried out in July 2001.
As of June 2011, 120 fire tests of the engine were carried out with a total operating time of 26892.4 seconds, including in the summer-autumn of 2009, three fire tests of the RD-191 as part of URM-1 (the first stage module of the Angara launch vehicle) were successfully carried out ) at the Scientific Research Center of RKP (Peresvet, Moscow region).
CHARACTERISTICS
Liquid rocket engine with afterburning oxidizing gas
Fuel – oxygen + kerosene
Thrust, ground/empty, tf 196/212.6
Specific impulse, ground/void, s 311.2/337.5
Pressure in the combustion chamber, kgf/cm2 262.6
Weight, dry/filled, kg 2290/2520
Dimensions, height/diameter, mm 3780/2100
Development period 1999–2011
Purpose For the first stage of the Angara launch vehicle family
–n. V.
characteristics
Sea level: 196 tf
Sea level: 311.5 s
Known engine modifications:
- RD-191 is used in the first stage of the Korean Naro-1 launch vehicle.
- RD-193 is intended for use in the first stage of the Soyuz-2.1v launch vehicle.
- RD-181 export version engine RD-193, it is planned to install on the American Antares launch vehicle of Orbital Sciences Corporation as a replacement for the NK-33 engines.
Main characteristics of RD-191:
The developer is the joint-stock company NPO Energomash named after. Academician V.P. Glushko" (JSC NPO Energomash). Engine production lead times are currently 18 to 24 months; it is planned to reduce this period to 12 months.
History of creation
In July 2010, during scheduled interdepartmental tests, the RD-191 rocket engine for the first stage of the Angara launch vehicle failed and burned out.
“The engine should have burned out. This is absolutely normal normal situation, experts had to establish what loads it was able to withstand.”
Press center - NPO Energomash.
On August 25, 2015, NPO Energomash began creating a modernized version of the RD-191 engine - RD-191M - which will be used on the Angara-A5V and Angara-A5P rocket launchers and will be 10-15% more powerful than its predecessor. The first stage of the preliminary design release will be completed in September 2015. Development work is planned to be completed by 2018.
In November 2015, Proton-Perm Motors PJSC announced a tender for the reconstruction of workshops for the production of the RD-191 engine for Angara rockets.
In September 2016, it became known that digital design would be introduced for the RD-191. For this purpose, a project team, a management committee have been formed and a budget has been determined. The project implementation is planned for three years.
See also
Write a review about the article "RD-191"
Notes
|
||||||||||||||||
Excerpt characterizing RD-191
Prince Andrei said that for this it is necessary legal education which he doesn't have.- Yes, no one has it, so what do you want? This is a circulus viciosus, [a vicious circle] from which one must escape through effort.
A week later, Prince Andrei was a member of the commission for drawing up military regulations, and, what he did not expect, the head of the department of the commission for drawing up carriages. At the request of Speransky, he took the first part of the civil code being compiled and, with the help of Code Napoleon and Justiniani, [the Code of Napoleon and Justinian,] worked on drawing up the section: Rights of Persons.
Two years ago, in 1808, having returned to St. Petersburg from his trip to the estates, Pierre unwittingly became the head of St. Petersburg Freemasonry. He set up dining rooms and funeral lodges, recruited new members, took care of the unification of various lodges and the acquisition of authentic acts. He gave his money for the construction of temples and replenished, as much as he could, alms collections, for which most members were stingy and careless. He almost alone, using his own funds, supported the home of the poor, established by the order in St. Petersburg. Meanwhile, his life went on as before, with the same hobbies and debauchery. He loved to dine and drink well, and although he considered it immoral and degrading, he could not refrain from enjoying the bachelor societies in which he participated.
In the midst of his studies and hobbies, Pierre, however, after a year, began to feel how the soil of Freemasonry on which he stood was moving away from under his feet, the more firmly he tried to stand on it. At the same time, he felt that the deeper the soil on which he stood went beneath his feet, the more involuntarily he was connected with it. When he began Freemasonry, he experienced the feeling of a man trustingly placing his foot on the flat surface of a swamp. Putting his foot down, he fell through. In order to be completely sure of the solidity of the soil on which he stood, he planted his other foot and sank even further, got stuck and involuntarily walked knee-deep in the swamp.
Joseph Alekseevich was not in St. Petersburg. (He's in lately removed himself from the affairs of the St. Petersburg lodges and lived constantly in Moscow.) All the brothers, members of the lodges, were people familiar to Pierre in life and it was difficult for him to see in them only brothers in masonry, and not Prince B., not Ivan Vasilyevich D., whom he knew in life for the most part as weak and insignificant people. From under the Masonic aprons and signs, he saw on them the uniforms and crosses that they sought in life. Often, while collecting alms and counting 20-30 rubles recorded for the parish, and mostly in debt from ten members, half of whom were as rich as he was, Pierre recalled the Masonic oath that each brother promises to give all his property for one's neighbor; and doubts arose in his soul, which he tried not to dwell on.
He divided all the brothers he knew into four categories. In the first category he ranked brothers who do not take an active part either in the affairs of lodges or in human affairs, but are occupied exclusively with the mysteries of the science of the order, occupied with questions about the triple name of God, or about the three principles of things, sulfur, mercury and salt, or about the meaning of square and all the figures of Solomon's temple. Pierre respected this category of Masonic brothers, to which mostly the old brothers belonged, and Joseph Alekseevich himself, in Pierre's opinion, but did not share their interests. His heart was not in the mystical side of Freemasonry.
In the second category, Pierre included himself and his brothers like him, those who are searching, hesitating, who have not yet found a direct and understandable path in Freemasonry, but hoping to find it.
In the third category he included brothers (there were the largest number of them), who saw nothing in Freemasonry except external form and ritualism and who value the strict execution of this external form, without caring about its content and meaning. Such were Vilarsky and even the great master of the main lodge.
Finally, the fourth category also included large number brothers, especially those who have recently joined the brotherhood. These were people, according to Pierre's observations, who did not believe in anything, did not want anything, and who entered Freemasonry only to get closer to young brothers, rich and strong in connections and nobility, of whom there were quite a lot in the lodge.
Pierre began to feel dissatisfied with his activities. Freemasonry, at least the Freemasonry that he knew here, sometimes seemed to him to be based on appearance alone. He did not even think of doubting Freemasonry itself, but he suspected that Russian Freemasonry had taken the wrong path and deviated from its source. And therefore, at the end of the year, Pierre went abroad to initiate himself into the highest secrets of the order.
In the summer of 1809, Pierre returned to St. Petersburg. According to the correspondence of our Freemasons with foreign ones, it was known that Bezukhy managed to gain the trust of many high-ranking officials abroad, penetrated many secrets, was elevated to the highest degree and was carrying with him a lot for the common good of the masonry business in Russia. The St. Petersburg Masons all came to him, fawning on him, and it seemed to everyone that he was hiding something and preparing something.
A solemn meeting of the 2nd degree lodge was scheduled, in which Pierre promised to communicate what he had to convey to the St. Petersburg brothers from senior managers orders The meeting was full. After the usual rituals, Pierre stood up and began his speech.
“Dear brothers,” he began, blushing and stammering, and holding the written speech in his hand. - It is not enough to observe our sacraments in the silence of the lodge - we need to act... act. We are in a state of sleep, and we need to act. – Pierre took his notebook and began to read.
“To spread pure truth and bring about the triumph of virtue,” he read, we must cleanse people from prejudices, spread rules in accordance with the spirit of the times, take upon ourselves the education of youth, unite in unbreakable bonds with the smartest people, boldly and together prudently overcome superstition, unbelief and It is stupidity to form people loyal to us, bound together by a unity of purpose and having power and strength.
“To achieve this goal, one must give virtue an advantage over vice, one must try to ensure that an honest person receives an eternal reward for his virtues in this world. But in these great intentions there are many obstacles that hinder us - the current political institutions. What to do in this state of affairs? Should we favor revolutions, overthrow everything, drive out force by force?... No, we are very far from that. Any violent reform is reprehensible, because it will not correct the evil in the least as long as people remain as they are, and because wisdom has no need for violence.
PERM, August 27 - RIA Novosti. The head of the Roscosmos state corporation, Dmitry Rogozin, announced his intention to open the production of environmentally friendly RD-191 engines for Angara rockets in the Perm region, according to the website of the governor and government of the region.
Rogozin’s statement was made on Tuesday during a working meeting with the Governor of the Perm Territory, Maxim Reshetnikov, held as part of the MAKS-2019 aerospace salon in Zhukovsky. According to the regional government, one of the main topics of the meeting was the development of the New Star technopolis in the Perm region and the associated modernization of the Proton-PM enterprise (part of Roscosmos), where it is planned to launch serial production RD-191 rocket engines using environmentally friendly fuel components.
“I hope this will have a beneficial effect on the region. If there are any tests of production in the Perm region, it will be the RD-191 under the Angara. And this is an oxygen-jet engine, clean components. We love the Perm region, we love the Kama, not I want to leave a bad mark in such a beautiful region,” the press service of the Perm governor quotes Rogozin.
As the report says, Rogozin clarified that the production of RD-191 engines for Angara launch vehicles will increase manifold from 2023 with the start of serial production of rockets. In this regard, Rogozin drew attention to the development social infrastructure cluster "New Star". “Here I am very grateful to the governor for all his efforts related to the development of infrastructure. Previously, we came to Perm - the working-class town was just developing. Now new jobs and specialists will appear, and it is necessary for them to have not only a road, but also a good school "- said Rogozin.
Governor Reshetnikov, for his part, noted that PJSC Proton-PM has created a master plan, according to which infrastructure is being developed in the New Lyady microdistrict, a territory for the promising development of a technopolis.
According to the government of the Perm region, by 2025 it is planned to create a modern sports infrastructure and build a swimming pool in Novye Lyady. The buildings of the local clinic for 150 visits per day and the technical school named after. V.P. Savinykh for 1 thousand places. In addition, it is planned to reconstruct the treatment facilities and the local filtration station.
"Angara" is a family of environmentally friendly launch vehicles of various classes. It includes light carriers "Angara-1.2", medium carriers - "Angara-A3", heavy carriers - "Angara-A5" and a modernized "Angara-A5M", with increased carrying capacity - "Angara-A5B". The RD-191 engine is used as part of the URM-1 universal rocket module of the Angara missiles. The light class Angara-1.2 missile uses one URM-1, the medium Angara-A3 - three, the heavy Angara-A5 - five.
MIA "Russia Today" is the official information partner of the MAKS-2019 aviation and space salon.
The creator of the world's best liquid-propellant rocket engines, Academician Boris Katorgin, explains why the Americans still cannot repeat our achievements in this area and how to maintain the Soviet head start in the future
On June 21, the winners of the Global Energy Prize were awarded at the St. Petersburg Economic Forum. An authoritative commission of industry experts from different countries selected three applications from the 639 submitted and named the winners of the 2012 prize, which is already commonly called the “Nobel Prize for energy workers.” As a result, 33 million bonus rubles this year were shared by the famous inventor from Great Britain, Professor Rodney John Allam, and two of our outstanding scientists - academicians of the Russian Academy of Sciences Boris Katorgin and Valery Kostyuk.
All three are related to the creation of cryogenic technology, the study of the properties of cryogenic products and their use in various power plants. Academician Boris Katorgin was awarded “for the development of highly efficient liquid rocket engines using cryogenic fuels, which ensure reliable operation of space systems at high energy parameters for the peaceful use of space.” With the direct participation of Katorgin, who devoted more than fifty years to the OKB-456 enterprise, now known as NPO Energomash, liquid liquids were created rocket engines(LPRE), the performance characteristics of which are now considered the best in the world. Katorgin himself was involved in the development of schemes for organizing the working process in engines, the mixture formation of fuel components and the elimination of pulsation in the combustion chamber. His fundamental work on nuclear rocket engines (NRE) with high specific impulse and developments in the field of creating high-power continuous chemical lasers are also known.
During the most difficult times for Russian science-intensive organizations, from 1991 to 2009, Boris Katorgin headed NPO Energomash, combining positions general director And general designer, and managed not only to save the company, but also to create a number of new engines. The lack of an internal order for engines forced Katorgin to look for a customer on the foreign market. One of the new engines was the RD-180, developed in 1995 specifically to participate in a tender organized by the American corporation Lockheed Martin, which was choosing a liquid-propellant rocket engine for the Atlas launch vehicle, which was then being modernized. As a result, NPO Energomash signed an agreement for the supply of 101 engines and by the beginning of 2012 had already supplied more than 60 liquid propellant engines to the United States, 35 of which were successfully operated on Atlases when launching satellites for various purposes.
Before presenting the award, “Expert” talked with academician Boris Katorgin about the state and prospects for the development of liquid rocket engines and found out why engines based on developments forty years ago are still considered innovative, and the RD-180 could not be recreated at American factories.
Boris Ivanovich, what exactly is your contribution to the creation of domestic liquid-propellant jet engines, which are now considered the best in the world?
To explain this to a non-specialist probably requires a special skill. For liquid rocket engines, I developed combustion chambers and gas generators; in general, he supervised the creation of the engines themselves for the peaceful exploration of outer space. (In the combustion chambers, the mixing and combustion of fuel and oxidizer occurs and a volume of hot gases is formed, which, then ejected through the nozzles, create the jet thrust itself; in gas generators, the fuel mixture is also burned, but for the operation of turbopumps, which, under enormous pressure, pump fuel and oxidizer into the same combustion chamber. - “Expert”.)
You are talking about peaceful space exploration, although it is obvious that all engines with a thrust from several tens to 800 tons, which were created at NPO Energomash, were intended primarily for military needs.
We did not have to drop a single atomic bomb, we did not deliver a single nuclear warhead on our missiles to the target, and thank God. All military developments went into peaceful space. We can be proud of the enormous contribution of our rocket and space technology to the development of human civilization. Thanks to astronautics, entire technological clusters were born: space navigation, telecommunications, satellite television, sensing systems.
The engine for the R-9 intercontinental ballistic missile that you worked on later formed the basis for almost our entire manned program.
Back in the late 1950s, I carried out computational and experimental work to improve mixture formation in the combustion chambers of the RD-111 engine, which was intended for that same rocket. The results of the work are still used in modified RD-107 and RD-108 engines for the same Soyuz rocket; about two thousand space flights have been carried out on them, including all manned programs.
Two years ago I interviewed your colleague, Global Energy laureate Academician Alexander Leontyev. In a conversation about specialists closed to the general public, which Leontyev himself once was, he mentioned Vitaly Ievlev, who also did a lot for our space industry.
Many academicians who worked for the defense industry were kept secret - that's a fact. Now much has been declassified - this is also a fact. I know Alexander Ivanovich very well: he worked on creating calculation methods and methods for cooling the combustion chambers of various rocket engines. Solving this technological problem was not easy, especially when we began to squeeze out the maximum chemical energy of the fuel mixture to obtain maximum specific impulse, increasing, among other measures, the pressure in the combustion chambers to 250 atmospheres. Let's take our most powerful engine - RD-170. Fuel consumption with oxidizer - kerosene with liquid oxygen passing through the engine - 2.5 tons per second. The heat flows in it reach 50 megawatts per square meter - this is enormous energy. The temperature in the combustion chamber is 3.5 thousand degrees Celsius. It was necessary to come up with a special cooling for the combustion chamber so that it could work properly and withstand the thermal pressure. Alexander Ivanovich did just that, and, I must say, he did a great job. Vitaly Mikhailovich Ievlev - Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences, Doctor technical sciences, a professor who unfortunately died quite early, was a scientist widest profile, had encyclopedic erudition. Like Leontiev, he worked a lot on methods for calculating highly stressed thermal structures. Their work overlapped in some places, was integrated in others, and as a result, an excellent technique was obtained that can be used to calculate the thermal intensity of any combustion chambers; Now, perhaps, using it, any student can do this. In addition, Vitaly Mikhailovich took an active part in the development of nuclear and plasma rocket engines. Here our interests intersected in those years when Energomash was doing the same thing.
In our conversation with Leontyev, we touched upon the topic of selling Energomashev’s RD-180 engines in the USA, and Alexander Ivanovich said that in many ways this engine is the result of developments that were made precisely during the creation of the RD-170, and in a sense, its half . Is this really the result of reverse scaling?
Any engine in a new dimension is, of course, new device. The RD-180 with a thrust of 400 tons is really half the size of the RD-170 with a thrust of 800 tons. The RD-191, designed for our new Angara rocket, has a thrust of 200 tons. What do these engines have in common? They all have one turbopump, but the RD-170 has four combustion chambers, the “American” RD-180 has two, and the RD-191 has one. Each engine needs its own turbopump unit - after all, if the four-chamber RD-170 consumes approximately 2.5 tons of fuel per second, for which a turbopump with a capacity of 180 thousand kilowatts was developed, more than two times greater than, for example, the power of the reactor nuclear icebreaker“Arctic”, then the two-chamber RD-180 is only half, 1.2 tons. I participated directly in the development of turbopumps for the RD-180 and RD-191 and at the same time supervised the creation of these engines as a whole.
The combustion chamber, then, is the same on all these engines, only their number is different?
Yes, and this is our main achievement. In one such chamber with a diameter of only 380 millimeters, a little more than 0.6 tons of fuel per second is burned. Without exaggeration, this chamber is a unique, highly heat-stressed equipment with special protection belts from powerful heat flows. Protection is achieved not only through external cooling chamber walls, but also thanks to the ingenious method of “lining” a film of fuel on them, which, as it evaporates, cools the wall. On the basis of this outstanding camera, which has no equal in the world, we manufacture our best engines: RD-170 and RD-171 for Energia and Zenit, RD-180 for the American Atlas and RD-191 for the new Russian rocket "Angara".
- “Angara” was supposed to replace “Proton-M” several years ago, but the creators of the rocket faced serious problems, the first flight tests were repeatedly postponed, and the project seems to continue to stall.
There really were problems. The decision has now been made to launch the rocket in 2013. The peculiarity of the Angara is that, based on its universal rocket modules, it is possible to create a whole family of launch vehicles with a payload capacity of 2.5 to 25 tons for launching cargo into low Earth orbit based on the universal oxygen-kerosene engine RD-191. Angara-1 has one engine, Angara-3 has three with a total thrust of 600 tons, Angara-5 will have 1000 tons of thrust, that is, it will be able to put more cargo into orbit than Proton. In addition, instead of the very toxic heptyl, which is burned in Proton engines, we use environmentally friendly fuel, after combustion of which only water and carbon dioxide remain.
How did it happen that the same RD-170, which was created back in the mid-1970s, still remains, in fact, innovative product, and its technologies are used as the basis for new liquid-propellant rocket engines?
A similar thing happened with an airplane created after World War II by Vladimir Mikhailovich Myasishchev (long-range strategic bomber M series, developed by Moscow OKB-23 in the 1950s. - “Expert”). In many respects, the aircraft was about thirty years ahead of its time, and elements of its design were later borrowed by other aircraft manufacturers. It’s the same here: the RD-170 has a lot of new elements, materials, and design solutions. In my estimation, they won't become obsolete for several decades. This is primarily due to the founder of NPO Energomash and its general designer Valentin Petrovich Glushko and Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Sciences Vitaly Petrovich Radovsky, who headed the company after Glushko’s death. (Note that the world's best energy and performance characteristics RD-170 is largely achieved thanks to Katorgin’s solution to the problem of suppressing high-frequency combustion instability through the development of anti-pulsation partitions in the same combustion chamber. - “Expert.”) And what about the RD-253 engine of the first stage for the Proton launch vehicle? Adopted back in 1965, it is so perfect that it has not yet been surpassed by anyone. This is exactly how Glushko taught us to design - at the limit of the possible and necessarily above the world average. Another important thing to remember is that the country has invested in its technological future. What was it like in the Soviet Union? Ministry general mechanical engineering, which, in particular, was in charge of space and rockets, spent 22 percent of its huge budget on R&D alone - in all areas, including propulsion. Research funding is much lower today, and that says a lot.
Doesn’t the achievement of certain perfect qualities by these liquid-propellant rocket engines, and this happened half a century ago, mean that the rocket engine with a chemical energy source is in some sense becoming obsolete: the main discoveries have been made in new generations of liquid-propellant rocket engines, now we are talking more about the so-called supporting innovations?
Definitely not. Liquid rocket engines are in demand and will be in demand for a very long time, because no other technology is capable of more reliably and economically lifting cargo from the Earth and placing it into low-Earth orbit. They are safe from an environmental point of view, especially those that run on liquid oxygen and kerosene. But liquid rocket engines, of course, are completely unsuitable for flights to stars and other galaxies. The mass of the entire metagalaxy is 10 to 56 grams. In order to accelerate on a liquid-propellant rocket engine to at least a quarter of the speed of light, you will need an absolutely incredible amount of fuel - 10 to the 3200th power of grams, so it’s stupid to even think about it. Liquid rocket engines have their own niche - propulsion engines. Using liquid engines, you can accelerate the carrier to the second escape velocity, fly to Mars, and that’s it.
Next stage - nuclear rocket engines?
Certainly. It is unknown whether we will live to reach certain stages, but much was done to develop nuclear propulsion engines already in Soviet times. Now, under the leadership of the Keldysh Center, headed by Academician Anatoly Sazonovich Koroteev, a so-called transport and energy module is being developed. The designers came to the conclusion that it was possible to create a less stressful one than it was in the USSR, nuclear reactor with gas cooling, which will work both as a power plant and as a source of energy for plasma engines when moving in space. Such a reactor is currently being designed at NIKIET named after N. A. Dollezhal under the leadership of Corresponding Member of the RAS Yuri Grigorievich Dragunov. The Kaliningrad design bureau “Fakel” also participates in the project, where electric jet engines are being created. As in Soviet times, it will not be possible without the Voronezh Chemical Automation Design Bureau, where they will produce gas turbines, compressors to drive a coolant - a gas mixture - through a closed circuit.
In the meantime, let's fly on a rocket engine?
Of course, we clearly see the prospects further development these engines. There are tactical, long-term tasks, there are no limits: the introduction of new, more heat-resistant coatings, new composite materials, reducing the weight of engines, increasing their reliability, simplifying the control circuit. A number of elements can be introduced to more closely monitor the wear of parts and other processes occurring in the engine. There are strategic tasks: for example, the development of liquefied methane and acetylene together with ammonia or ternary fuel as combustible materials. NPO Energomash is developing a three-component engine. Such a liquid-propellant rocket engine could be used as an engine for both the first and second stages. At the first stage, it uses well-developed components: oxygen, liquid kerosene, and if you add about five percent more hydrogen, the specific impulse - one of the main energy characteristics of the engine - will significantly increase, which means that more payload can be sent into space. At the first stage, all kerosene with the addition of hydrogen is produced, and at the second, the same engine switches from running on three-component fuel to two-component fuel - hydrogen and oxygen.
We have already created an experimental engine, albeit of small size and a thrust of only about 7 tons, carried out 44 tests, made full-scale mixing elements in the nozzles, in the gas generator, in the combustion chamber, and found out that it is possible to first work on three components, and then smoothly switch to two. Everything works out, high combustion efficiency is achieved, but to go further, we need a larger sample, we need to modify the stands in order to launch into the combustion chamber the components that we are going to use in a real engine: liquid hydrogen and oxygen, as well as kerosene. I think it's very promising direction And big step forward. And I hope to have time to do something during my lifetime.
Why have the Americans, having received the right to reproduce the RD-180, not been able to make it for many years?
Americans are very pragmatic. In the 1990s, at the very beginning of working with us, they realized that in the energy field we were much ahead of them and we needed to adopt these technologies from us. For example, our RD-170 engine in one launch, due to its greater specific impulse, could carry two tons more payload than their most powerful F-1, which meant a gain of 20 million dollars at that time. They announced a competition for an engine with a thrust of 400 tons for their Atlases, which was won by our RD-180. Then the Americans thought that they would start working with us, and in four years they would take our technologies and reproduce them themselves. I immediately told them: you will spend more than a billion dollars and ten years. Four years have passed, and they say: yes, we need six years. More years passed, they said: no, we need another eight years. Seventeen years have passed and they have not reproduced a single engine. They now need billions of dollars just for bench equipment. At Energomash we have stands where the same RD-170 engine, whose jet power reaches 27 million kilowatts, can be tested in a pressure chamber.
- Did I hear right - 27 gigawatts? This is more than the installed capacity of all Rosatom nuclear power plants.
Twenty-seven gigawatts is the power of the jet, which develops in a relatively short time. When tested on a bench, the energy of the jet is first extinguished in a special pool, then in a dissipation pipe with a diameter of 16 meters and a height of 100 meters. To build such a stand, which houses an engine that creates such power, you need to invest a lot of money. The Americans have now abandoned this and are taking finished product. As a result, we do not sell raw materials, but a product with enormous added value, into which highly intellectual work has been invested. Unfortunately, in Russia this is a rare example of high-tech sales abroad in such a large volume. But this proves that if we pose the question correctly, we are capable of much.
- Boris Ivanovich, what needs to be done so as not to lose the head start gained by the Soviet rocket engine industry? Probably, in addition to the lack of funding for R&D, there is another very painful problem - personnel?
To remain on the world market, we must constantly move forward and create new products. Apparently, until we were completely pressed and thunder struck. But the state needs to realize that without new developments it will find itself on the margins of the world market, and today, in this transition period, while we have not yet matured to normal capitalism, the state must first of all invest in the new. Then you can transfer the development for the release of the series private company on conditions beneficial to both the state and business. I don’t believe that it is impossible to come up with reasonable methods for creating new things; without them, it is useless to talk about development and innovation.
There are frames. I head the department at the Moscow Aviation Institute, where we train both engine and laser engineers. The guys are smart, they want to do the job they are learning, but we need to give them a normal initial impulse so that they don’t go, like many people do now, to write programs for distributing goods in stores. To do this, it is necessary to create an appropriate laboratory environment and provide a decent salary. Build the correct structure of interaction between science and the Ministry of Education. The same Academy of Sciences resolves many issues related to personnel training. Indeed, among the current members of the academy and corresponding members there are many specialists who manage high-tech enterprises and research institutes, powerful design bureaus. They are directly interested in ensuring that the departments assigned to their organizations train the necessary specialists in the field of technology, physics, and chemistry, so that they immediately receive not just a specialized university graduate, but ready-made specialist with some life and scientific and technical experience. This has always been the case: the best specialists were born in institutes and enterprises where educational departments existed. At Energomash and at NPO Lavochkin we have departments of the MAI branch “Kometa”, which I head. There are old personnel who can pass on experience to the young. But there is very little time left, and the losses will be irrevocable: in order to simply return to the current level, you will have to expend much more effort than is needed today to maintain it.
Ctrl Enter
Noticed osh Y bku Select text and click Ctrl+Enter
Loading...
