The YF-100 is a Chinese

liquid Liquid is a state of matter with a definite volume but no fixed shape. Liquids adapt to the shape of their container and are nearly incompressible, maintaining their volume even under pressure. The density of a liquid is usually close to th ...

rocket engine A rocket engine is a reaction engine, producing thrust in accordance with Newton's third law by ejecting reaction mass rearward, usually a high-speed Jet (fluid), jet of high-temperature gas produced by the combustion of rocket propellants stor ...

burning

LOX Lox is a fillet of brined salmon, which may be smoked. Lox is frequently served on a bagel with cream cheese, and often garnished with tomato, onion, cucumber, and capers. Etymology The American English word ''lox'' is a borrowing of Yiddi ...

and

kerosene Kerosene, or paraffin, is a combustibility, combustible hydrocarbon liquid which is derived from petroleum. It is widely used as a fuel in Aviation fuel, aviation as well as households. Its name derives from the Greek (''kērós'') meaning " ...

in an oxidizer-rich

staged combustion cycle The staged combustion cycle (sometimes known as topping cycle, preburner cycle, or closed cycle) is a power cycle of a bipropellant rocket engine. In the staged combustion cycle, propellant flows through multiple combustion chambers, and is th ...

. Development of the engine began in the 2000s, along with its sibling, the smaller YF-115, which would power the upper stages of the

Long March 6 The Long March 6 () or Chang Zheng 6 as in pinyin, abbreviated LM 6 for export or CZ 6 within China, is a Chinese liquid-fuel rocket, liquid-fuelled launch vehicle of the Long March (rocket family), Long March family, which was developed by t ...

and

Long March 7 The Long March 7 (), or Chang Zheng 7 in pinyin, abbreviated LM-7 for export or CZ-7 within China, originally Long March 2F/H or Chang Zheng 2F/H, nicknamed Bingjian (), is a Chinese liquid-fuelled launch vehicle of the Long March family, dev ...

rockets. Testing was directed by the China National Space Administration (CNSA) commencing in 2005. Development works are mainly carried out by the Xi'an Aerospace Propulsion Institute. The engine had its first 300 seconds test fire in November 2007. A high efficiency/high thrust environmentally-friendly rocket engine was always an objective within Programme 863 in the 1980s; however, Chinese industry was not mature enough at that time to produce such a rocket until they obtained

RD-120 The RD-120 (, GRAU index: 11D123) is a Liquid-propellant rocket, liquid upper stage rocket engine burning RG-1 (propellant), RG-1 (refined kerosene) and LOX in an Staged combustion cycle (rocket), oxidizer rich staged combustion cycle with an Rock ...

s in early 1990 from Russia following the collapse of the USSR. It is the first Chinese rocket engine to adopt the staged-combustion cycle and the most powerful to date. During July 2012 the engine fired for 200 seconds generating of thrust. On May 28, 2012, the National Defense Science and Industry Bureau certified the engine. The engine is designed for use on the

first stage First stage or First Stage may refer to: * First Stage Children's Theater, a professional American children's theater based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin * First stage (rocketry), the first stage of a multistage rocket * the first reading of a bill in t ...

of the Chinese government's new generation of launch vehicles, the

Long March 5 Long March 5 (LM-5; zh, s=长征五号 , p=Chángzhēng wǔ hào) or Changzheng 5 (CZ-5), also known by its nickname "''Pang-Wu''" (胖五, "''Fat-Five''"), is a Chinese heavy-lift launch vehicle developed by the China Academy of Launch Vehicl ...

, the

and the

. The engine's maiden flight, on the Long March 6, took place on September 20, 2015.

Technical Description

The YF-100 is a pump-fed oxidizer rich staged combustion rocket engine. It has adjustable thrust and variable mixture ratio. Its preburner burns all the

mass flow with a bit of

to generate hot gas that powers the single turbine. The turbopump is a single-shaft design, with a single-stage oxygen pump and a dual-stage kerosene pump driven by the same turbine. It also has two low-pressure pumps that prevent

cavitation Cavitation in fluid mechanics and engineering normally is the phenomenon in which the static pressure of a liquid reduces to below the liquid's vapor pressure, leading to the formation of small vapor-filled cavities in the liquid. When sub ...

. This arrangement is very similar to the

RD-170 The RD-170 () is the world's most powerful and heaviest liquid-fuel rocket engine. It was designed and produced in the Soviet Union by NPO Energomash for use with the Energia launch vehicle. The engine burns kerosene fuel and LOX oxidizer in fo ...

design. The engine has a heat exchanger to heat oxygen gas for LOX tank pressurization, and also supplies high-pressure kerosene as hydraulic fluid for the

thrust vector control Thrust vectoring, also known as thrust vector control (TVC), is the ability of an aircraft, rocket or other vehicle to manipulate the direction of the thrust from its engine(s) or motor(s) to control the attitude or angular velocity of the veh ...

actuators. The development required ten years of research, requiring the mastering of 70 key technologies, the development of 50 new materials, and the construction of 61 sets of engines with a combined total of more than 40,000 seconds of ignition time by 2013.

Versions

At least five different versions are known to exist. * YF-100 (single-axis TVC): Version for the LM-5 and LM-7 boosters. This version of TVC has a single axis of gimbal. * YF-100 (dual-axis TVC): Version for the LM-7 core. This version TVC has a dual-axis gimbal. * YF-100GBI: A version used on the LM-6. Due to the rocket's single nozzle, a dual-axis gimbal can not control the rocket's roll. Therefore, this version of the engine diverts a portion of the preburner exhaust through two roll control nozzles on opposite sides of the launch vehicle at the expense of losing 0.30% of thrust and 0.79% of

isp An Internet service provider (ISP) is an organization that provides a myriad of services related to accessing, using, managing, or participating in the Internet. ISPs can be organized in various forms, such as commercial, community-owned, non ...

while the O/F is increased by 0.12%. * YF-100K: an uprated version of YF-100 used on the first stage cores of the Long March 12 and future

Long March 10 Long March 10 (), also known as the “''Next Generation crewed launch vehicle''” (), and previously and unofficially as the “''921 rocket''” () or the "''Long March 5G''" (a development of the Long March 5), is a Chinese Super heavy-lift l ...

. * YF-100M: similar to the YF-100K but optimized for vacuum operation; a pair of YF-100M's will be used on the second stage of the

References

External links

The Ship Knowledge, issue 11, 2012 (舰船知识2012年第11期)
{{DEFAULTSORT:YF-100 Rocket engines of China Rocket engines using kerosene propellant Rocket engines using the staged combustion cycle

Technical Description

Versions

See also

References

External links