Pratt & Whitney Rocketdyne, Inc.

Aerojet Rocketdyne of De, Inc.

Thomas M Walczuk

Mark David Horn

William S Brown

Rodney Noble

Frederick E Dodd

A fuel manifold for a thrust chamber assembly includes a main fuel chamber which is generally frustro-conical in shape. The main fuel chamber provides a resonance frequency that is different than an acoustic resonance frequency of a combustion chamber.

Low velocity injector manifold for hypergolic rocket engine

An ignition system for a combustor includes a resonance system which generates an oscillation pressure force by a resonant flow interaction between two parallel interconnected flow passages which carry an incompressible flow. A piezoelectric system driven by said resonance system. An igniter powered by said piezoelectric system.

Piezo-resonance igniter and ignition method for propellant liquid rocket engine

An ignition system for a rocket engine utilizes the pressure energy in a propellant flow. The propellant flow generates an oscillating pressure force in a resonance system which is then transmitted to a piezoelectric system. The electrical pulses are utilized to generate a spark in an igniter system spark gap, resulting in ignition. Since the spark energy production is driven by the resonance of the propellant flow, a fully passive auto-ignition system is provided. Once ignition occurs, the resultant backpressure in the combustion chamber 'detunes' the resonance phenomena and spark production stops. Furthermore, should the engine flame out, spark production would automatically resume as the propellant valves remain open thereby providing relight capability.

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Oak Park, CA, United States of America

Thomas M Walczuk