Preliminary design optimization for a supersonic turbine for rocket propulsion

Nilay Papila', Wei Shyy', Lisa Griffin', Frank Huber* and Ken Tran §" Department of Aerospace Engineering, Mechanics & Engineering ScienceUniversity of Florida, Gainesville, FL+NASA Marshall Flight Center, Huntsville, AL: Riverbend Design Services, Palm Beach Gardens. FL" Boeing - Rocketdyne Division. Canoga Park. CAABSTRACTIn this stud,,', we present a method for optimizing, at thepreliminary design level, a supersonic turbine for rocketpropulsion system application. Single-. two- and three-stage turbines are considered v, ith the number el desienvariables increasing from h to I1 then to 15. inaccordance with the number of stages. Due to its globalnature and flexibility in handling different types ofinformation, the response surlace methodoloev tRSMI isapplied in the present stud)'. A major goat of the present,_ptimization etf_rt is to balance the desire of maximizingaerodynamic performance and mmHnizing ,.veight. I+oascertain required predictive capability t_t the P, SM. atv,'o-level domain refinement approach has been adopted."['he accuracy of the predicted optimal design pmnts basedon this ,,,trategy is shown t_3 be satistactorv. Ourinvestigation indicates that the efficiency rises qutckl>lrom single stage to 2 stages but that the increase is muchless pr{mt+unced vcith 3 stagcs. ,\ t-,+taue turbine pert;,+rmsp_+tll-ly under thc engine hai,:tllCe i_ouildi.tl_, c,>ndltitln. [1__,i,_,mficant [_ortlon of fluid kinetic energy ts Io_,t at theturbine discharge of the l-stage design due to high stagepressure ratio and high-enerev content, mostly hvdrooen_t the working t]uid. Regarding the <_ptimizationtechnique, issues related t_3 the dc,slgn _,[