Merlin 1d rocket engine diagram. A 190000 lbf gas generator liquid rocket engine that powers spacexs falcon launch vehicle family. Tom mueller one of the founding employees at spacex explains the basics of the merlin rocket engine. The merlin engine was originally designed for sea recovery and reuse. Summary as a member in the turbomachinery development group i was fortune to work on rocket engine programs that were both near completion in initial development with the merlin raptor engines.
The injector at the heart of merlin is of the pintle type that was first used in the apollo. Most classically made regeneratively cooled engines have combustion cha. For the uprated one the area of the throat is held constant and the pressure is increased. Through a 28 test qualification program the merlin.
The merlin engine is the first new american booster engine in ten years and only the second in the last 25 years. According to spaceflight 101 the chamber pressure is the same but the expansion ratio throat area to end of nozzle area is 7 times larger in the vacuum variant which if correct implies about 27 times the nozzle diameter if the throat is unchanged. The spacex merlin is a family of rocket engines developed by spacex for use on its falcon 1 falcon 9 and falcon heavy launch vehicles. For example the merlin 1d 650 kn 147000 lbf has more than twice the thrust of the merlin 1a 340 kn 77000 lbf of thrust which means twice the mass flow rate of propellant different injectors and nozzles etc.
The first iteration of the engine was the merlin 1a. The merlin 1d rocket engine does have cooling channels in the nozzle wall. According to my calculations the following table is true for the current merlin 1d and the soon to be flown uprated merlin 1d. The engine firing was for 185 seconds with 147000 pounds.
Also the chosen of ratios are the stoichiometric ratio 232 and the ratio used by the saturn v f1 engine 256. F 1 rocket engine thrust chamber diagram rocket engine apollo programmar 20 the spacex merlin 1d engine has achieved flight qualification a major milestone for the next generation merlin engine. Merlin engines use rp 1 and liquid oxygen as rocket propellants in a gas generator power cycle. The current model of the falcon 9 uses nine of these thus the name.
The biggest difference is the nozzlefor optimal performance in vacuum you want a much larger one. It doesnt look like other engines with regenerative cooling channels because of the way it is made. Spacexs merlin 1d engine has achieved a full mission duration firing and multiple restarts at target thrust and specific impulse isp.