Have you ever said someone or someone told you that “this is not a Rocket Science” while dealing

with a difficult problem? It seems that Rocket science is more complex. Of course, putting this
technology into practice is a little bit tricker. However, understanding the theory or basic principles
behind this technology is not a big deal. The most complex portion of rocket technology is the
Cryogenic Engine. Only six countries in the world have indigenous cryogenic engines, which makes
this technology a distinguished one. In this video, we will attempt to simplify the technology behind
Cryogenic Engine for better understanding.

Rocket helps us to put our payload or satellites into the required orbit. They work based on the
principle of Newton’s third law, for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. To make it
simple, let us recall our childhood days while we were playing with balloons. When the pressurized
air from a stretched balloon is pushed out, the balloon will start moving forward. Here the expelled
air is the action and the balloon moving forward is the reaction. Applying the same principle to
rockets, when hot gases are expelled out with high velocity towards the earth by burning fuel, an
equal and opposite force called Thrust will make the rocket move towards the sky. So, what makes
the difference between the balloon and the rocket is the amount of power. Here comes the term
Cryogenic.

Cryogenic means cold generation in Greek term. Typically, cryogenic is used when the temperature
choice is below -100 degree Celsius. So, what is the necessity for cryogenic here? As we discussed
earlier, the difference between a balloon and a rocket is the amount of power. Normally rockets will
be about hundred meters in height and millions of pounds in weight. To lift such a massive giant,
million pounds of the thrust are mandatory. In order to achieve such a thrust level, a high mass flow
rate of propellant is essential. It is a well-known fact that to make a fire, we need a fire triangle. That
is Fuel, Oxygen, and heat source. Here Fuel and oxidizers are denoted as the propellant. If these
propellants are used in gaseous mode, then fuel tank size and mass will condense the rocket
efficiency. In the sense of achieving compactness, these propellants are liquified. For liquifying the
propellants, a cryogenic temperature is required. For example, the fuel Hydrogen liquifies at -253
degree Celsius and the oxidizer Oxygen liquifies at -183 degree Celsius. Refer to our video in the
above link to know more about how oxygen is liquified using cryogenic technology.

You might be wondered why Rockets are launched in multi-stages? The main purpose of a rocket is
to put our payloads or satellites into its orbit. During take-off, the rocket lifts not only the payloads
but also the rocket structures and fuel tanks. Here the exciting part is, our payloads are only a small
proportion of the total mass and propellant tanks form the major proportion. So, if multi-stages are
used, that particular stage structure can get rid of the total mass once the fuel of that stage is
finished. This will condense the load to further stage engines.

We will discuss a term Specific Impulse here. Specific Impulse is the ratio of thrust and mass flow
rate. To put in simple terms, it is analogous to our vehicle mileage. Compared to solid propellants,
Cryogenic propellants deliver more thrust for every kilogram of propellant consumed. This means
they have a high specific impulse. But cryogenic propellants have some drawbacks. Firstly, the low
density of cryogenic propellants requires a big size fuel tank. The next is the insulation requirement
of cryogenic propellants makes the system more complex and costlier. So, depending on the mission
objectives and budget, cryogenic engines are constrained to the upper stages.

Now we will get into the interesting part of our video. A typical cryogenic rocket engine will be
looking like this. First, we will understand the major parts of a cryogenic engine. These two parts on
either side of the engine are Turbopumps. The left side turbopump is responsible for pumping fuel
i.e. Liquid Hydrogen into the engine from the fuel storage tank. The other pump on the right side is
responsible for pumping oxidizer i.e., Liquid Oxygen into the engine. This is a heat exchanger
responsible for heating the Helium gas. This part is the main injector responsible for uniformly
injecting the propellants into the engine. This is the Main Combustion Chamber where the
combustion of propellants takes place. This part is nozzle and this is nozzle extension, where our
burnt propellants are expelled out at supersonic velocity. So broadly we can say that this portion as
powerpack for propelling the propellants into the engine and this portion is for burning the
propellants.

Now we will understand how the engine is operating. As we discussed earlier, to obtain high thrust
we need more mass flow rate of propellants. This can be achieved with the help of high-power
pumps. But for driving this pump, we need a high-power drive. For this, we can go for a electric
motor. But for powering this motor we need a huge set of batteries which will make our engine
more complex. So, the brilliant idea here is to use a turbopump. Turbopump will be having a turbine
at one end and an impeller for pumping action coupled at the other end. When hot gases at high
pressure are expanded in this turbine, it will capture the energy from the hot gas and convert it into
mechanical energy. This mechanical energy will be transferred to the pump end through the shaft
and converted to pressure energy where fuel and oxidizer are pumped. The pressure of the
propellants decides the pressure in the combustion chamber which in turn decides the thrust
developed by the cryogenic engine. Otherwise, we can say that by controlling power to the turbine,
we can control the thrust developed by the cryogenic engine. So, this turbopump is the most critical
thing in the Cryogenic engine design.

Based on the method of power supplied to the turbine of the turbopump, cryogenic engine
operation can be classified into 3 cycles. Firstly Gas Generator cycle and is the most commonly used
cycle. In this cycle, a gas generator is used for generating hot gas necessary for powering turbines. A
portion of fuel and oxygen is diverted to the gas generator from the discharge of turbopumps. Gas
Generator Fuel Valve and Gas generator Oxidizer valve is used for diverting fuel and oxygen
respectively. These diverted propellants are combusted in the gas generator to produce hot high-
pressure gas. This hot gas is diverted to the turbine of the Fuel Turbopump and then into the turbine
of the Oxidizer Turbopump. This gas stream to Oxidizer turbopump can be bypassed using Oxidizer
Turbine Bypass Valve. This helps in controlling oxygen flow rate to combustion chamber thereby
adjusting oxygen to fuel mixture ratio.
After passing through the Oxygen Turbopump turbine, the hot gas stream is then passed into the
heat exchanger to heat the Helium gas. This Helium gas is used to pressurize the oxygen storage
tank. This pressurization is necessary since oxygen is withdrawn from the tank, there will be a
vacuum created in the storage tank. This will be compensated by the hot helium gas. If the tank is
not pressurized, then the oxygen tank may collapse, or inlet flow to the Oxygen turbopump may get
restricted due to insufficient suction pressure. After heating the Helium gas, the hot gas stream goes
to the nozzle extension area. The combustion of propellants in the gas generator is not complete
and this results in a loss of fuel. This partially combusted propellant expelled out results in
condensed overall efficiency and this is a drawback in the gas generator cycle. The other major
proportion of fuel turbopumps are connected to the main injector through Main Fuel Valve. Because
of propellants combustion inside the main combustion chamber, there will be a temperature of
about 3000 degree Celsius. This high temperature is hot enough to melt the combustion chamber
and nozzle. Before passing into the main injector, hydrogen is passed through the walls of the main
combustion chamber. Liner Jacket arrangement will ensure structural strength and copper alloy
material will ensure proper heat exchange while hydrogen passed around the wall of the combustion
chamber and nozzle. So, the Hydrogen passed through the walls of the combustion chamber will
effectively exchange the heat thereby safeguarding the combustion chambers. Before passing into
the main injector, a stream of hydrogen is diverted back to pressurize the hydrogen storage tank.
This is similar to the purpose of Helium and oxygen tank pressurization. In the main injector,
hydrogen and oxygen are connected. The main injector arrangement is such that it will ensure the
uniform combustion of propellants inside the combustion chamber.
Inside the main combustion chamber, the pressure will be high. Gas flows from high pressure at the
head end on the left towards the low pressure at the exhaust on the right. In between, the flow area
of the “pipe” in which the gas flows is manipulated to accelerate the fluid. The most narrow point in
the flow is called the throat. The velocity of the gases at the left is at sub-sonic level i.e., velocity less
than the velocity of sound. As the combusted gases flow from the main combustion chamber to the
throat area, the velocity of the gases is increased to sonic level i.e., velocity equal to the velocity of
sound. As the gas reaches the nozzle extension area, pressure is reduced and velocity reaches the
super-sonic level i.e., the velocity greater than the velocity of sound. This can be related to
Bernoulli’s principle which states that the total mechanical energy of the moving fluid remains
constant. In other words, for steady flow conditions, when fluid is accelerated, its pressure drops.
This super-sonic velocity of gases expelled out from the engine generates an equal and opposite
level of thrust force in the engine. This explains why the rocket engine is hour-bell shaped and also
how the thrust is generated.
The major drawback of the Gas generator cycle is overall condensed efficiency due to partial
combustion in the gas generator. This drawback is not there in the Closed Expander Cycle as partial
combustion of propellant is evaded. This scheme shows the closed expander cycle working. This is
more simplified than the Gas generator cycle. This cycle is the same in all other aspects of the gas
generator cycle. The major difference here is the power necessary for running the turbopumps is
given by heated hydrogen from combustion chamber walls and then it goes inside the main injector
and then to the combustion chamber. Here the drawback of partial combustion is overcome. But the
heat taken by hydrogen from the combustion chamber wall is not sufficient to generate the required
power. So the thrust generated by the engine using the closed expander cycle is less than the thrust
generated by the engine using the gas generator cycle. For example, we will compare the thrust
generated by two different cycle engines. RL-10 and J-2X are the two different engines developed by
NASA. RL-10 is based on the closed expander cycle and J-2X is based on the gas generator cycle. The
Specific Impulse, Propellants used, the Mixture ratio of these two engines are the same and the only
difference is the cycle. The thrust developed by the RL-10 engine is 22300 lbf, whereas the thrust
developed by the J-2X engine is 294000 lbf. This is a major difference between the Closed expander
cycle and the gas generator cycle. 
If someone wants both high efficiency and high thrust engine and ready to accept the resultant
complexity, then the staged combustion cycle is the right choice. Here gas generator is replaced with
a pre-burner and turbine exhaust gases are connected to the main injector whereas it is connected
to the nozzle extension area in the gas generator cycle. This will give the advantage of high efficiency
of expander cycle and high thrust efficiency of gas generator cycle. But the major drawback here is
since the turbine exhaust gases are connected directly to the Main combustion chamber which is a
high-pressure area. This necessitates high pressure in the pre-burner to ensure unrestricted flow to
the main combustion chamber. Hence there is a requirement of overall high system pressure and
this increases overall system complexity. 
Now we will discuss the fuels used in the cryogenic engine. Hydrogen and RP-1 are commonly used
fuels in cryogenic engines. Hydrogen is having a high specific impulse hence it is more efficient. At
the same time, Hydrogen is very light hence huge tanks are required to store them, and also metals
exposed to the extreme cold of liquid hydrogen become brittle. Moreover, liquid hydrogen can leak
through minute pores in welded seams. Solving all these problems required an enormous amount of
technical expertise. Although the RP1 fuel is having less Specific impulse, these engines produce
more thrust for given engine size. For better understanding, we will compare the thrust level of two
different engines J-2X and F-1A developed by NASA. Both engines are based on the gas generator
cycle whereas the fuel used by them is different. J-2X uses Hydrogen and F-1A uses RP-1. The thrust
generated by J-2X is 294000 lbf whereas the thrust generated by F-1A is 1800000 lbf. We can
achieve the same level of thrust in Hydrogen fuel at the cost of rocket size. For example, NASA
developed M-1 engine with Hydrogen as fuel and the estimated thrust is 1500000 lbf. But later it
was dropped due to the heavyweight of the fuel tank.