Effects of Momentum Ratio and Weber Number on Spray Half Angles of Liquid Controlled Pintle Injector

A pintle injector is advantageous for throttling a liquid rocket engine and reducing engine weight. This study ex- plores the effects of momentum ratio and Weber number at various injection conditions on spray characteristics of the pintle injector for liquid-gas propellants. A liquid sheet is injected from a center pintle nozzle and it is broken by a gas jet from an annular gap. The pressure drops of propellants, and the pintle opening distance were consi- dered as control variables; using 0.1 -1.0 as a bar for the pressure drop of the liquid injection, a 0.01-4）.2 bar for the pressure drop of gas jet and a 0.2 - 1.0 mm for the pintle opening distance. The discharge coefficient was de- creased linearly before the pintle opening distance of 0.75 mm and then, the coefficient was slightly increased. Spray images were captured by a CMOS camera with high resolution. Then, the shadow and reflected images were analyzed. Spray distributions were measured by a pattemator with an axial distance of 50 mm from a pintle tip. Finally, the spray half angles had an exponentially decreasing correlation as a momentum ratio divided by the Weber number. Also, the spray half angles from the spray distribution were underestimated compared to those measured from the captured images.