I NDEX

SR NO. TOPI CS
1} I NTRODUCTI ON
2} NECESSI TY
3} DUAL PI STONLESS PUM P
4} WORKI NG OF THE PUM P
5} DI AGRAM OF PI STONLESS PUM P
6} ADVANTAGES
7} APPLI CATI ONS
8} PERFORM ANCE VALI DATI ON
9} I STALLATI ON I N ROCKET
10} WORKI NG M ODELOF THE PUM P
11} GRAPH OF FLOW RATE VS. TI M E
12} DI SADVANTAGES
13} COCLUSI ON
14} BI BLOGRAPHY

ABSTRACT:
Pistonless pump for rocket has been proved to be the most
economical than piston pump or turbopump.
In pistonless pumps, piston is absent. It has very much less
rotating parts than that of piston pumps or turbo pumps. So, it has less
friction losses and there by it helps to improve the efficiency of the engine
considerably.They can be easily installed in the rocket than
turbopumps.Also,it reduces the weight of rocket.
 This article discusses the working , advantages of pistonless
pump over turbopump.
Pistonless pumps are 80-90% economical than that of
piston pump or turbo pumps.Nasa has manufactured such kind of pump and
tested it actually,and they found it works conveneiently.

I NTRODUCTI ON:
NASA have developed a Low cost rocket fuel pump which has
Comparable performance to turbopump at 80-90% lower cost. Perhaps
the most difficult barrier to entry in the liquid rocket business is the
turbo pump. A turbo pump design requires a large engineering effort
and is expensive to mfg. and test. Starting a turbo pump fed rocket
engine is a complex process, requiring a careful of many valves and
subsystems.In fact ,Beal aerospace tried to avoid the issue entirely by
building a huge pressure feed booster. Their booster never flew, but the
engineering behind it was sound and ,if they had a low cost pump at
their disposal ,they might be competing against Boeing. This pump
saves up to 90% of the mass of the tanks as compared to a pressure
fed system. This pump has really proved to be a boon for rockets . By
this pump the rocket does not have to carry heavy load and can travel
 with very high speed.

NECESSECI TY:
The turbo pumps used in rocket are very heavy,containing many
rotating parts by which there are more frictional losses which
more consumption of fuel there by decreasing the efficiency of
the engine .Also, the maintainanace of such pump is, very
important factor since the rocket has to remain stable in the
space, is difficult and require complex methods for it. If this
pump gets any fault then its repairance requires long time and also
it is avery hectic task.So, there must be such a device which
overcomes all the drawbacks of the turbopump as above. The
pistonless pump is the solution for the problems faced by using
turbopumps. They have only a drawback that they supply fuel
with less pressure as compared to turbopumps.

THE DUAL PI STONLESS PUM P:

NASA has designed,built and tested a simple, light weight pump
(dual pistomless pump) for use in liquid propelled rocket where a
reliable pump with minimal moving parts is needed. This pump
has the potential to reduce the cost and increase the reliability of
rocket fuel pumps by a factor of 20 to 100.

WORKI NG:
Rocket engines requires a tremendous amount of fuel high
at high pressure .Often th pump costs more than the thrust
chamber.One way to supply fuel is to use the expensive
turbopump mentioned above,another way is to pressurize fuel
tank. Pressurizing a large fuel tank requires a heavy , expensive
tank. However suppose instead of pressurizing entire tank, the
main tank is drained into a small pump chamber which is then
pressurized. To achieve steady flow, the pump system consists of
two pump chambers such that each one supplies fuel for ½ of
each cycle. The pump is powered by pressurized gas which acts
directly on fluid. For each half of the pump system, a chamber is
filled from the main tank under low pressure and at a high flow
rate, then the chamber is pressurized, and then the fluid is
delivered to the engine at a moderate flow rate under high
pressure. The chamber is then vented and cycle repeats. The
system is designed so that the inlet flow rate is higher than the
outlet flow rate.This allows time for one chamber to be vented ,
refilled and pressurized while the other is being emptied.A bread
board pump has been tested and it works great .A high version
has been designed and built and is pumping at 20 gpm and 550psi.
PI STONLESS PUM P FI GURE:
 As shown in the above diagram , two cylinders are there ,
filled with the fuel from the main tank. This main tank is
emptied in these two cylinders, these cylinders are
pressurized by the high pressure tank,as shown.The high
pressure tank pressurizes one cylinder of high pressure,as
shown,as soon as the cylinder is emptied , it is vented,
again it gets filled up from the main tank.The same cycle
reapeats for the second cylinder.the cycle is such that,
fuel is supplied by the cylinder one by one.ie. each
cylinder supplies fuel for each half cycle.As one cylinder
supplies the fuel other has enough time to refill.

ADVANTAGES:
Nearly all of the hardware in this pump consists of pressure
vessels, so the weight is low.There are less than 10 moving parts ,
and no lubrication issues which might cause problems with other
pumps. The design and constr. Of this pump is st, forward and no
precision parts are required .This device has advantage over std.
turbopumps in that the wt. is about the same, the unit,engg.and test
costs are less and the chance for catastrophic failure is less.This
 pump has the advantage over pressure fed designs in that the wt. of
the complete rocket is much less, and the rocket is much safer
because the tanks of rocket fuel do not need to be at high pressure.the
pump could be started after being stored for an extended period with
high reliability.It can be used to replace turbopumps for rocket
booster opn. or it can be used to replace high pressure tanks for deep
space propulsion.It can also be used for satellite orbit changes and
station keeping.

APPLI CATI ONS:

1}DEEP SPACE PROPULSI ON:
NASA has a need for high power propulsion to land and
spacecraft on the moons of Jupitor and beyond.this pump would
allow these missions to go forward due to lower weight of the fuel
tanks. For example, to land on Europa with a hydrazine
monopropellant rocket , pump fed design would save 80% of the
tank weight compared to a pump fed design.Further weight
savings could be achieved by heating the pressurant gas more,
because the pressurant would not be in contact with the propellant
for more than a few seconds . In addition ,the chamber could be
increased , saving engine weight and improving performance.
2} X PRI ZE VEHI CLE FUEL PUM P APPLI CATI ON:
For X-prize competitors, a the fuel pump will reduce the cost
and increase the safety and reliability of their amateur manned
vehicles.Sitting on top of tons of rocket fuel is dangerous
enough,siiting on top if tons of rocket fuel at high pressure is
even more so. Many of the competitors plan to use Hydrogen
Peroxide(HTP) and jet fuel to power their rockets.When the
pump is used to pump HTP, it can decompose some of the fuel in
a gas generator to run the pump. This saves a considerable
amount of weight pressurant and main tankage.
In addition , the factor on the low pressure tanks will
be similar to the cost of the high pressure tanks alone.

PERFORM ANCE VALI DATI ON:

 A calculation of the weight of this type of pump shows that the
power to weight ratio would be dominated by the pressure chamber
and that it would be of the order of 8-12 hp per lb., for a 5 second
cycle using a composite chamber. This performance is similar to
state of the art gas-generator turbopump technology. (The F1
turbopump on the Saturn V put out 20 hp/lb) This pump could be
run until dry, so it would achieve better residual propellant
scavenging than a turbopump. This system would require a supply
of gaseous or liquid Helium which would be heated by a heat
exchanger mounted on the combustion chamber before it was used
to pressurize the fuel, as in the Ariane rocket.. The volume of
gas required would be equivalent to a standard pressure fed design,
with a small additional amount to account for ullage in the pump
chambers. The rocket engine itself could be a primarily ablative
design, as in the NASA Fastrac, scorpious rocket or in
recent rocket engine tests.

I NSTALLATI ON FI GURE:
A proof of concept model of the pump has been constructed out of clear

plastic and tested at low pressure. The results of the test are shown below.

The pressure and flow are quite steady. The pump system is run with a

Labview based computer program. There are two floats which are used to

monitor the level in each pump chamber and each chamber uses

a two solenoid valves, one to pressurize source and on to vent the chamber.
The installation figure of the pistonless pump is shown in the above figure.

The high pressure cylinder used for pressurizing fuel,is installed at the

bottom of the rocket,shown in green colour in the figure.And above this

cylinder further assembly is mounted as shown in the first diegram.

Thus the figure shows that the installation is very easy as compared to that

of the turbo pump.

 WORKI NG M ODEL OF ROCKET FUEL PUM P:

The pump shown is equipped with electronic level sensors and air cylinder

actuated ball valves. The pump works as predicted and it will be easy to

reconfigure it to pump LOX and jet fuel.this type of pump will make rocket

propulsion systems much more reliable and less expensive than that of the

turbo jet pump.

 FLOW AND PRESSURE DATA FOR ROCKET FUEL PUM P:

The above graph shows the variation of the flow of fuel through
both of the cylinders .It shows that as one cylinder gets emptied the
other one gets filled up and fuel is supplied by each cylinder to
the engine for each half cycle. As one cylinder gets emptied the
other one gets filled up , thus giving an uninterrupted fuel supply
to the engine. Also, the time required for the refill of the fuel in
the cynlinder is sufficient to supply fuel for next half cycle.
A video of the pump in action is also available.The is steady as well
 and as the design is improved, the flow and pressure will be
steadier. This pump is similar to one mentioned in 1960 in
Exploring the Solar System by Felix Godwin p-21 p-22 and to one
patented by Sobey,(3,213,804) Jim Blackmon and Eric Lanning
(6,314,978) A second generation version (patent pending) that is
lower in weight (12 hp/lb) has been designed and built and is now
being tested. The first prototype is designed to work with our Atlas
Vernier. It provides 20 GPM at 600+ psi and it is made of stainless
steel and Teflon to be compatible with all common rocket
fuels(LOX,RP-1, H2O2, hydrazine etc). Check this page soon for
test results. We plan to build a couple of flight ready versions of
this pump to pump LOX and kerosene and fly it on one of our
Atlas vernier powered rockets This rocket will be able to acheive an
altitude of over 100 miles

DI SADVANTAGES:
The pistonless pumps has disadvantages along
with such fine advantages.
1}They cannot pump to higher pressure than drive gas (area ratio is 1:1)
2}They cannot use either a staged combustion or expander cycle.
3}A gas generator cycle is also difficult to integrate with the pistonless
pump.
4}The generated gas must be chemically compatible with both the
propellants.
5}This gas generator lowers the Ignition start period of the engine.
 CONCLUSI ON:
The most significance of property of Pistonless pump that makes
them different from that of turbo pump ,is the absence of piston.
This is the most unique technique.In this ,no. of rotating
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very easy.and moreover, it is light weight than turbo pump.So, it has less
losses and improves,rather increases efficiency of engine.Also, it is much
economical than turbopump.
The only drawback of pistonless pump is that, that it cannot
supply high pressure fuel and also,it cannot have stage combustion or
expander cycle,further, it has no vibrations.
 BI BLOGRAPHY:
1}Theory Of Rocket propulsion (By R.H.Boden)
2}Book Of Rocket Propulsion (By zechosloviky)
3}Mechanics Of Thermodynamics Of propulsion
(By Philip Hill,Call Peterson)