Spray Characteristics of a Movable Pintle Injector with Pintle Tip Shape

In the development of the liquid rocket engine using the pintle injector, spray characteristics such as spray angle, droplet size, and distribution of the droplets are dominant parameters. Three different kind of multi hole type pintle tip and a continuous type pintle tip were designed. In the case of multi hole pintle tip, SMD result did not have a significant difference depending on the number of holes. In analysis with visualization images, however, the droplets were uniformly distributed as the number of holes increased. Liquid droplets from continuous type pintle tip were finely atomized and dispersed uniformly than those from multi-hole type pintle tip. In addition, the thrust control by adjusting the liquid injection area of the pintle is suitable for the continuous type, which is easier to face-shutoff rather than the multi hole type. The spray angle of each pintle tip according to TMR was measured to derive a specific tendency and corresponding empirical formula.