https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Staged_combustion_cycle#Full-flow_staged_combustion_cycle
Full-flow staged combustion cycle
Full-flow staged combustion rocket cycle
Full-flow staged combustion (FFSC) is a twin-shaft staged combustion cycle that uses both oxidizer-rich and fuel-rich preburners. The cycle allows full flow of both propellants through the turbines; hence the name.
[3] The fuel
turbopump is driven by the fuel-rich preburner, and the oxidizer turbopump is driven by the oxidizer-rich preburner.
[4][3]
Benefits of the full-flow staged combustion cycle include turbines that run cooler and at lower pressure, due to increased mass flow, leading to a longer engine life and higher reliability. As an example, up to 25 flights were anticipated for an engine design studied by the
DLR (German Aerospace Center) in the frame of the
SpaceLiner project.
[3] Further, the full-flow cycle eliminates the need for an interpropellant turbine seal normally required to separate oxidizer-rich gas from the fuel turbopump or fuel-rich gas from the oxidizer turbopump,
[5] thus improving reliability.
Since the use of both fuel and oxidizer preburners results in full gasification of each propellant before entering the combustion chamber, FFSC engines belong to a broader class of rocket engines called gas-gas engines.
[5] Full gasification of components leads to faster chemical reactions in the combustion chamber, which improves performance.
Potential disadvantages of the full-flow staged combustion cycle include increased engineering complexity of two preburners, relative to a single-shaft staged combustion cycle, as well as an increased parts count.
As of 2019, only three full-flow staged combustion rocket engines had ever progressed sufficiently to be tested on test stands; the
Soviet Energomash RD-270 project in the 1960s, the
US government-funded
Aerojet Rocketdyne Integrated powerheaddemonstration project in the mid-2000s,
[5] and
SpaceX's flight capable
Raptor engine first test-fired in February 2019.
[6]
The first
flight test of a full-flow staged-combustion engine occurred on 25 July 2019 when SpaceX flew their Raptor
methalox FFSC engine at their
South Texas Launch Site. Unusually, for initial flight tests of orbital-class rocket engines, this was not a full-duration burn but just a 22-second test. SpaceX is developing their next-generation rocket to be reusable from the beginning, just like an aircraft, and thus needs to start with narrow flight test objectives, while still aiming to
landthe rocket successfully to be used subsequently in further tests to expand the flight envelope.