Ring Nozzle

Votes: 2
Views: 3977

1. The purpose of this innovation. There are many challenges space explorations face, one of them is overcoming gravity. Launching a rocket into orbit to a certain velocity can get highly expensive. Making a rocket engine more efficient using less fuel to reach higher velocity can reduce the weight and materials of the rocket that will end up reducing the cost. The Ring Nozzle design is an alternative idea that would replace nozzles that are continuous in shape.

2 Competitive advantage and how it works. The purpose of the rings is to allow outside air to enter one way through the nozzle. The rocket’s hot exhaust gas flows tangential from ring to ring, as this happen outside air is pulls into the nozzle through the offset between the rings, see drawing section view B-B. This process causes oxygen in the air to fuel the rocket, increase mass flowrate, and increase in atmospheric pressure at the exhaust outlet for higher acceleration. Once a rocket reaches a velocity, air is now force between the rings. Once the rocket reaches Mach speed or passed it, the rocket may become more efficient as sonic wave occurs on the inner wall of the nozzle while still keeping a laminar flow. The air flow between rings can also act as a coolant, and a protective barrier between the hot gases. Other nozzle designs could be implemented in the design, like fuel as a coolant circulating through the nozzle structure.

2 Manufacturing process. The Ring Nozzle design is a number of horizontal rings offset of each other ranging from a small diameter at the throat of the rocket to gradually larger diameter at exhaust outlet, See Drawing Fig 1 for details. Fig 1 is a front cut out view of the rocket engine showing the combustion chamber, the throat of a rocket, and the Ring Nozzle. The Rings are shaped like a wing vertically, see Detail C or D, and circular round in the horizontal direction, see drawing section view A. Rings are held in place by vertical frames, See Item (5) in a polar array formation ranging from 3 to more support frames. For the manufacturing process, each ring would be cast made then machined on a lathe to the precise dimension. For this project to work, working with potential interest would need to be required to use their level of expertise to build and attach the Ring Nozzle to their rocket.

3 Potential interest with applications in the aerospace, aviation, and/or defense markets. Places like NASA, Rocketdyne, Pratt Whitney, Space X, Lockheed Martian, Boeing, or any party that has interest for space exploration and is looking for economical way to launch a rocket into space. Depending on their mission, it cost 100 to 500 million USD to launch a rocket into space. The Ring Nozzle design is an idea that can possibly improve rocket propulsion significantly and reduce that cost by some amount, and the use of resource materials.

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  • ABOUT THE ENTRANT

  • Name:
    Eric Nilsson
  • Type of entry:
    individual
  • Profession:
    Engineer/Designer
  • Eric's hobbies and activities:
    Military research and design, cosplaying
  • Eric is inspired by:
    Star Wars, Star Trek, and any other movies and games that involve space exploration.
  • Software used for this entry:
    AutoCAD 2018
  • Patent status:
    pending