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Vulcain

Vulcain 1 engine on display at Musée des Sciences et des Techniques de la Villette
Country of origin	France
First flight	04 June 1996
Last flight	18 December 2009
Designer	Snecma
Manufacturer	Safran Aircraft Engines
Application	Main stage engine
Associated L/V	Ariane 5
Successor	Vulcain 2
Status	Retired
Liquid-fuel engine
Propellant	Liquid oxygen / Liquid hydrogen
Mixture ratio	5.3
Cycle	Gas generator
Configuration
Nozzle ratio	45.1
Performance
Thrust (vac.)	1,140 kN (256,300 lbf)
Chamber pressure	100 bars (1,500 psi)
Isp (vac.)	431 s (4.23 km/s)
Dimensions
Length	3.05 m (10.0 ft)
Diameter	1.76 m (5.8 ft)
Dry weight	1,300 kg (2,900 lb)
Used in
Ariane 5 G and GS
References
References	[1][2][3][4]

Vulcain 2

The Vulcain 2 engine
Country of origin	France
First flight	12 February 2005
Designer	Snecma
Manufacturer	Snecma
Application	Main stage engine
Associated L/V	Ariane 5
Predecessor	Vulcain 1
Status	In use
Liquid-fuel engine
Propellant	Liquid oxygen / Liquid hydrogen
Mixture ratio	6.1
Cycle	Gas generator
Configuration
Nozzle ratio	58.2
Performance
Thrust (vac.)	1,359 kN (305,500 lbf)
Chamber pressure	117.3 bars (11.73 MPa)
Isp (vac.)	429 s (4.21 km/s)
Dimensions
Length	3.44 m (11.3 ft)
Diameter	2.09 m (6.9 ft)
Dry weight	1,800 kg (4,000 lb)
Used in
Ariane 5 ECA, ES
References
References	[1][5][6][7][8]
Notes	Test firing of the Vulcain 2 engine in May 2004

Vulcain 2.1

Country of origin	France
Designer	Snecma
Manufacturer	Snecma
Application	Main stage engine
Associated L/V	Ariane 6
Predecessor	Vulcain 2
Status	In development
Liquid-fuel engine
Propellant	Liquid oxygen / Liquid hydrogen
Cycle	Gas generator
Performance
Chamber pressure	120.8 bars (12.08 MPa)
Dimensions
Length	3.xx m
Diameter	2.xx m
Used in
Ariane 6

Vulcain is a family of European first stage rocket engines for Ariane 5 and the future Ariane 6. Its development began in 1988 and the first flight was completed in 1996. The updated version of the engine, Vulcain 2, was first successfully flown in 2005. Both members of the family use liquid oxygen/liquid hydrogen cryogenic fuel. The new version under development for Ariane 6 will be called Vulcain 2.1.

History

The development of Vulcain, carried out by a European partnership, began in 1988 with the Ariane 5 rocket program.^[9] It first flew in 1996 powering the ill-fated flight 501 without being the cause of the disaster, and had its first successful flight in 1997 (flight 502).

In 2002 the upgraded Vulcain 2 with 20% more thrust^[10] first flew on flight 517^{[clarification needed]}, although a problem with the engine turned the flight into a failure.^[11] The cause was due to flight loads being much higher than expected, as the inquiry board concluded.^[12] Subsequently, the nozzle was redesigned to include mechanical reinforcement of the structure and improvement of the thermal situation of the tube wall through enhancing hydrogen coolant flow as well as applying a thermal barrier coating to the flame-facing side of the coolant tubes.^[12] The first successful flight of the (partially redesigned) Vulcain 2 occurred in 2005 on flight 521.^[11]

Further development

On 17 June 2007 Volvo Aero announced that in spring of 2008 it expected to hot-fire test a Vulcain 2 nozzle manufactured with a new "sandwich" technology.^[13]

The development of the future version for Ariane 6, Vulcain 2.1, began in 2014. First flight-configuration engine nozzle was delivered in June 2017, reducing parts count by 90%, cost by 40% and production time by 30% comparing to the engine nozzle of Vulcain 2.^[14]

Overview

The Vulcain is a gas-generator cycle rocket engine fed with cryogenic liquid oxygen and liquid hydrogen. It features regenerative cooling through a tube wall design, and the Vulcain 2 introduced a particular film cooling for the lower part of the nozzle, where exhaust gas from the turbine is re-injected in the engine.^[12] It powers the first stage of the Ariane 5 launcher, the EPC (Étage Principal Cryotechnique, main cryogenic stage) and provide 8% of the total lift-off thrust^[15] (the rest being provided by the two solid rocket boosters). The engine operating time is 600 s in both configurations.^[16] 3 m tall and 1.76 m in diameter, the engine weighs 1686 kg and provides 137 t of thrust in its latest version.^[17] The oxygen turbopump rotates at 13600 rpm with a power of 3 MW while the hydrogen turbopump rotates at 34000 rpm with 12 MW of power. The total mass flow rate is 235 kg/s, of which 41.2 kg/s are of hydrogen.

Contractors

The main contractor for the Vulcain engines is Snecma Moteurs (France), which also provides the liquid hydrogen turbopump. The liquid oxygen turbopump is the responsibility of Avio (Italy), and the gas turbines that power the turbopumps and the nozzle are developed by GKN (Formerly Volvo) (Sweden).^[15]

See also

• Comparison of orbital rocket engines


• Spacecraft propulsion


• Timeline of hydrogen technologies

Comparable engines

• RS-68


• J-2X


• SSME (RS-25)


• RD-0120

References and notes

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Vulcain (rocket engine).

• Arianespace – Ariane 5: Cryogenic Main Stage and Solid Boosters


• Ariane 5 ECA and Snecma – Snecma Moteurs: Vulcain 2 engine proves its mettle


• 
  "LH2 Turbine (Vulcain and Vulcain 2 engines)" (PDF). – Volvo Aero


• 
  "LOX Turbine (Vulcain and Vulcain 2 engines)" (PDF). – Volvo Aero


• 
  "Development of the turbines for the Vulcain 2 turbopumps" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-09-30. – Volvo Aero


• 
  "High cycle fatigue of Vulcain 2 LOx turbine blades" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-09-27. – Volvo Aero


• 
  "An efficient concept design process" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-09-27. – Volvo Aero


• 
  "Vulcain 2 nozzle" (PDF). – Volvo Aero

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