This document discusses the staged combustion cycle used in rocket engines. The staged combustion cycle was first proposed in 1949 and allows for higher efficiency and performance compared to other cycles. It works by burning a small amount of fuel and oxidizer in a preburner to power turbines that pressurize the propellants. The preburner exhaust then mixes with the remaining propellants and burns again in the main combustion chamber. This staged combustion burns almost all the fuel and allows operation at high pressures and thrust. However, the design is more complex which increases costs. Examples of engines that use staged combustion include the RD-180 and Space Shuttle Main Engine.

1. STAGED COMBUSTION CYCLE IN
ROCKET ENGINE
EGME-418
PREPARED BY: JAYKUMAR SHAH
CWID:893282533
GUIDED BY: Dr. Haowei Wang

2. Outline:
• Introduction
• Objectives
• Staged Combustion Cycle
• Classification
• Advantages & Drawbacks
• Application
• References

3. Introduction:
• A bi-propellant engine is an engine which is
used for liquid or cryogenic rockets. The major
principle to use this engine is to get higher
specific impulse, which can be enabled using
STAGED COMBUSTION CYCLE.

4. Objectives:
• To achieve higher efficiency & greater
performance
• To work at higher pressure chamber
• To minimize emission and wastage of
propellants
• Flexibility of cycle design

5. Staged Combustion Cycle:
• It is a Bi-propellant engine cycle, where the
word cycle indicates power cycle. Power cycle
is used to pressurize the propellant as well as
oxidizer to fed into rocket engines.
• Staged combustion was first proposed in 1949
by a Russian rocket engineer Alexey Isanev.

6. Staged Combustion Cycle (continued)
• In rocket engines, we need
some kind of force or
pressure to fed fuel and
oxidizer to the thrust
chamber.
• To get this force, we use a
gas generator called
‘Preburner’, where we
burn small quantity of
oxidizer with large
quantity of fuel making it
Fuel-rich combustion.

7. Staged Combustion Cycle (continued)
• This preburner runs Turbines & Turbo-pumps
connected to fuel-oxidizer tanks to pressurize
them to fed into combustion chamber.
• In preburner, very small amount of fuel burns
due to lack of the oxidizer. This fuel rich
exhaust gases will have some unburnt fuel
available.
• This exhaust gases goes to main combustion
chamber to burn again.

8. Classification:
• Fuel Rich Staged Combustion (FRSC)
• Oxidizer Rich Staged Combustion (ORSC)

9. Advantages:
• Burns almost all the fuel, so no dumping of
any propellant particles overboard
• Ability to operate at high chamber pressure.
• Generates high amount of Thrust, High Isp.
• Reusable.
Drawbacks:
• Production cost is higher due to complicated
design & Startup issues.

10. Application:
• RD-180 Engine: made by Russia and used on
Atlas V rocket
• Space Shuttle Main Engine
• Raptor: It’s under
development by SpaceX
for the exploration and
colonization of Mars.

11. References:
• Rocket Propulsion Elements by George P. Sutton (8th edition)
• Design of Liquid Propellant Rocket Engines by David Huang
• https://en.wiki2.org/wiki/Staged_combustion_cycle#History
• http://science.nasa.gov/science-news/science-at-
nasa/2005/14oct_betterrocket/
• http://ocw.mit.edu/courses/aeronautics-and-astronautics/16-
512-rocket-propulsion-fall-2005/lecture-notes/lecture_25.pdf
• http://www.scienceforums.net/topic/81051-staged-
combustion-rocket-engines/

12. THANK YOU
Q/A