Digital Machining System for Nozzle Cooling Channel of Large Liquid Rocket Engine.

Rocket nozzle is a key structural part of high-thrust liquid rocket engine. There are a hundreds of cooling channels around the nozzle, to ensure the reliable cooling and preheat the fuel. However, it is very difficult to machine the cooling channel due to large size, complex profile, low rigidity, etc. In this article, an integrated digital method for cooling channel machining composed of profile measuring, data processing and channel milling is proposed. Because of large difference between the actual contour and the design model, the channel bottom should be redesigned by using the measured geometric information. Therefore, the varying-thickness and varying-depth cooling channel of nozzle with high order contour or parametric shapes can be machined. Further, a special digital machining system is developed based on an open numerical control platform for the dual-channel vertical milling machine. Finally, an experiment utilizing a typical rocket nozzle is implemented to verify the feasibility of the system. It has been proved that the digital machining system can meet the machining requirements for liquid rocket engine nozzle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]