NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) recently partnered with Barber-Nichols to demonstrate a pump technology capable of deep throttling performance in lower thrust class liquid rocket engine propellant applications. Many, if not most, propellant pumps utilize full emission pump configurations as this technology provides the highest hydraulic efficiency at the design duty point, which applies well to booster and upper stage applications. Full emission pumps do start to rapidly loose both efficiency and NPSH performance if they are moved away from their design point as may be required for descent duties. Barber-Nichols and MSFC decided to explore the applicability of a partial emission pump due to its ability to scale well at the smaller flows required for descent missions and to perform well over a wide range of flow conditions. Click Here to learn more at NASA Tech Briefs.
