Everyday Astronaut - 2022-01-13
Rocket engines need to produce heat to function, after all, their only real purpose is to convert the chemical energy in the propellant into pressure and heat so they can produce thrust. And that brings up an obvious question! How in the heck do engines survive this heat? How did rocket scientists figure out how to keep an engine running continuously while harboring combustion inside it that’s hot enough to melt the very walls that are containing it?! Today we’re going to talk about the tricks engineers employ to keep rocket engines from melting. We’ll go over ablative cooling, regenerative cooling, film cooling, radiative cooling, heat sinks, and fuel to oxidizer ratios and show you some awesome examples of each. Here's an article version of this video - https://everydayastronaut.com/engine-cooling-methodes/ 00:00 - Intro / Timestamps 01:55 - Heatsink 04:12 - Fuel to Oxidizer Ratio 07:20 - Ablative Cooling 10:30 - Regenerative Cooling 14:20 - Film Cooling 22:15 - Radiative Cooling 23:30 - Summary -------------------------- Want to support what I do? Consider becoming a Patreon supporter for access to exclusive livestreams, our discord channel and subreddit! - http://patreon.com/everydayastronaut Or become a YouTube member for some bonus perks as well! - https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC6uKrU_WqJ1R2HMTY3LIx5Q/join The best place for all your space merch needs! https://everydayastronaut.com/shop/ All music is original! Check out my album "Maximum Aerodynamic Pressure" anywhere you listen to music (Spotify, iTunes, Google Play, Amazon, etc) or click here for easy links - http://everydayastronaut.com/music
I love the approach of this video following the engineering approach: Engines get very hot, we need to cool them. What possibilities are there? What works best? What can be combined? ... Great job, Tim. More of that please.
A better question is how did the towers fall from burning kerosene?
@will nordeste 😊
Hey Tim, I find myself very fascinated and as of lately, pretty passionate about learning about rockets. I haven’t yet found any other videos as helpful or easy to understand as yours. Thanks for really bringing space down to earth for everyday people like me! 👍🏼 Your channel is a huge part of my growth in knowledge on space exploration and I’m so grateful for that!
Very educational. I love how Tim makes very complex concepts fairly easy to understand. His illustrations really help. Nice job Tim!
You explained these cooling methods so well that feel like common sense. Anyway, the film method blowed my mind, I would never guessed how it works. Thank you so much for helping me to understand such a critical part of a reusable engine.
Hey Tim, huge improve on your motion skils over these years! The particles animation from the engine's infographic is awesome!
These transitions are like next level. The writing and structure of this video is like A++. Well done to the team.
I have one negative criticism. I don't think he should have used the term "sandbagging" to describe engine performance, because it's not a technical term, and particularly people of other languages will have difficulty with it. But, also children will not understand sandbagging. Overall the video is my new favorite video.
@tsmspace What does it mean?
I'm surprised that NASA or SpaceX hasn't hired him to work for them for public relations.
@ahamay2012 In sports its used to describe pretending to be worse than you actually are/not playing up to your full potential intentionally
@theJimTanker I wouldn’t be surprised if Elon offered him a job at some point. But I think sticking with his YouTube career makes more sense, and I think Elon would agree even if he wants him as an employee
Fantastically informative. I loved the graphics explaining the principles, combined with close-ups of actual engines employing those principles. Great job!
Watching your video, “Why Rocket Engines Don’t Melt”, with my grandson, who is a student at CalPoly studying to be electrical engineer, he said, “grampa, Tim should be an engineering teacher at CalPoly. Tim explains information not only very clearly and understandable, but speaks in a pleasant and comfortable manner that makes his presentation interesting”. Thank you Tim for providing your time and energy to help educate the public. You should feel good and proud of yourself.
I think this sentiment is shared by millions upon millions of students across every field and every college...including myself when I went to college...it seems like a MAJORITY of professors FAIL to realize that their objective is to "teach" students who are trying to understand a subject that is quite foreign to them until they encounter it in class...these professors..instead of taking something complicated and make it simple..they insist on keeping it complicated...why..I don't know...the trickle down effect...it was the way they were taught and they know no better...THIS GUY TIM IS AWESOME....
He should be a professor at Harvard. He reminds me of our comp science professor but for engineering.
This is bonkers levels of fascinating, educational and mind blowing but ‘easy’ to understand and worthy of high praise. Take a bow, Tim!
🏆😊
Tim, you never disappoint... excellent video 👏 I love trying to wrap my mind around somewhat counter-intuitive engineering solutions like film cooling, but for some reason the idea of designing your rocket engine to destroy itself in a controlled manner (non-RUD!) like ablation always makes the engin-nerd in me chuckle! 😎
Also, do I spy a possible Everyday Astronaut kid's mascot in that excellent engine cutaway animation @ 2:10 ?! ♟I can't help but see a character lying on their side with a head (combustion chamber), two arms around a body (nozzle) & wearing a hat/cap! 🎩 It's kinda cute.... nothing like anthropomorphising a complex piece of engineering! LOL
This video is so well put together that it could be used at a Technical School. Well done Tim!
Very fun to work on this one, I hope everyone liked the animations! 🔥❄🚀
awesome animations!!!
They were amazing!
Amazing job!
Really great!
While watching I was really impressed by those animations as a graphic designer myself, and wondered who made them...Only to come the comments and see for myself! Great job man, they looked fantastic. :)
Great video, thanks! I wonder how much of the fuel (percentage) is used to be pumped through the nozzle to cool it during operation - do you happen to have any figures on that?
Regenerative cooling, and the related engineering and design, is absolutely and completely mind-blowing. Making the nozzle completely with tubing? I had no freaking idea. I'm WOW'ed. Those engineers are intellectual semi-gods, I swear.
Another great episode Tim, keep up the amazing work, I absolutely love learning about rockets
Brilliant content, presented in a perfect way! Keep up this top-notch work, please.
The video is great! Thank you very much! I like the fantastic balance between high-level overview and details. And the reallife examples as fire-test videos with marks and notes bring a huge portion of understanding!
Literally since I was a kid, I was curious about that dark section of the F1 exhaust. I'm 55 now, and this is the first time I've had it explained to me. Thanks so much Tim, and thanks for all your work.
That video is on YouTube in super slo-mo. It is well worth your time. It is mesmerizing. Nine minutes to cover just a few tens of seconds. You can see the explosive bolts on the hold-down clamps blow. The initial flames that flow up out of the deck get entrained as the engines get going to full thrust.
Just search on Saturn V launch slow motion. Some have music added. The one I first ran across had an explanation of everything to look out for and even how they got these engineering shots in the description. (Looking into a mirror from a steel box with a quartz window with a blast shield that slams down when the rocket gets far enough off the pad)
Same here, nice to know, I'm 56
Is the dark section only relatively dark, like a sunspot?
While in 4th or 5th grade (around 1985 in Iran), we watched a NASA video documentary at school and it explained most of this. I clearly remember nozzles of the F1 engine being made of Ni-alloy tubes brazed together and fuel running through them before burning in the combustion chamber, film-cooling, the injector panel, the gold plugs, baffles used for stability of the exhaust, etc. There was even a student competition to build a mock-up of the Saturn-5 rocket. We had a lot of educational videos in our school archives and they would copy them for us if we provided them with a raw video cassette.
Part of what Tim is missing in his explanation is that the bell is kept cool, in large, because the rocket is constantly moving away from the hot plume. It's a simple thing and easy to miss. Sometimes these nerds are so eager to show off their big brains, they overlook what's rPart of what Tim is missing in his explanation is that the bell is kept cool, in large, because the rocket is constantly moving away from the hot plume. It's a simple thing and easy to miss. Sometimes these nerds are so eager to show off their big brains, they overlook what's right in front of them.
Another terrific video, Tim! Well done and very informative! Cool stuff (literally!) as always!! Keep up the great work! 👍🚀
Love the video Tim, thank you summing all that info up and presenting it in a really easy to understand way.
A video idea you could take a look at maybe comes from a discussion I keep having with friends into what scientific and other technological breakthroughs have come from space exploration and general rocketry. Its not as rocket science heavy but it would be a good explanation as to why space exploration is as important as we all think it is.
Keep up the fantastic work
Loved the video. I am a space enthusiast and love the way you explain things. Please keep it up!
Tim you make your videos so informative and interesting. Thank you. Who’d have thought it: a video on rocket science that hasn’t been dumbed down that I actually understand. Thank you again.
Amazing video - love every second of it. Just wanted to comment that behind all the successful designs there were a LOT of experimental rocket engine failures, some more spectacular than others. After each failure they analyzed the cause and came up with innovative solutions like the cooling methods mentioned. I think that's where the phrase "Back to the drawing boards" came from! LOL
Just amazing. I'm an aerospace engineering student and I learned so much from this video, especially through the examples from history and the amazing animations, thanks Tim! One of my favorites for sure. Besides I'm studying applied thermodynamics at the moment so the timing is also spot on!
Awesome!!! Best of luck!
@Everyday Astronaut you should make a Book recommendation video on Rocket science and engineering
@Hello Ignition and (haha) Liftoff are great books I heard
I wonder if this degree is very (I mean VERY) hard. Could you rate the difficulty level somehow? Like how much time do you spend learning or something. tia
@Everyday Astronaut please make a book recommendation video on Rocket science,Engineering and History
Hey, awesome video mate. Keep up all the incredible work! You inspire so many people including the future up-and-coming aerospace engineers of tomorrow.
There are many YouTubers like this guy who produce apparently decent technical content like this while they have absolutely no experience in the fields they cover. I remember a couple of years ago, this guy was just a happy SpaceX fan who knew almost nothing about space technology or engineering...
After persistent coverage of SpaceX tests and launches, he became popular for his nerdy reactions and his OMG screams during launches and tests. Watch his early coverages of SpaceX launches; he first knew about much of this stuff from reading the live comments (I personally witnessed that in a few instances). Now, he tells the audience to "ask me any question you have" :)
It's amazing...
Would be great to get a video on the other more subtle but cool tricks used to cool down the engine, or about anything else really.
I think those detail videos could be great, just like watching a video about details in a movie you might not have noticed :)
Another brilliant video, artfully explained, beautifully presented.
Love your work.
Can't wait for the next one. 😊 ❤️
This is simply the best video on rockets I've ever seen. Thank you for sharing the knowledge in such a digestible and concise form, with amazing graphics, references, and transitions. Amazing work!
Can't wait for the next one!
The idea of keeping super cool and super hot things so close together is crazy to think.
same thing with fusion reactors, advanced computers, and probably a lot of other stuff
Like Brangelina.
A refrigerator has the same thing going on, just a much smaller scale. My little brother ended up in the hospital once because he had placed his hand on the backside where it caused second degree burns on part of the hand and another part frostbitten.
Like me and my Gf
like holding a cup of coffee, without the thin cup your fingers would be boiling : o
Excellent video, Tim. As a companion video please discuss what the exhaust of these engines actually smells like. After all, many tons of propellants' are consumed each second which workers near the launch sites or testing facilities are bound to encounter.
Hey mate! I am really interested in building model rockets, so basically I wanted a video on model rocket motors and their nozzle geometry, I hope you would take this in consideration.
Fantastic work as always Tim and co.! Question:
It’s my understanding that the pressure to spin a turbine is really about the pressure differential. (If I were to stop up the end of the gas generator the turbine wouldn’t spin) if this is right, wouldn’t feeding the generator exhaust into the nozzle dramatically reduce efficiency? Talking of pressure always moving from high to low makes it sounds like we’d only need a 1 bar difference, but wouldn’t that mean there’s only 1 bar to drive the turbine? guess everything is a balancing act but just not sure how it all works out. Thanks for any insights!!
I enjoyed this video a lot, you did an awesome job explaining how the various types of cooling systems on rocket engines work.
Love your passion and dedication! And a very interesting episode.
One of the few channels I don’t hesitate to click on. Thank you for the hard work Tim, you truly inspired me to get into the nitty gritty of rocket science.
My only complaint is not enough quantity of content, but that’s a small price to pay for the absolute, unequalled quality.
Am I the only one that’s this posted 80 years ago???
@Jackson Cooksey nope
@Kevin Vansteenkiste I see now thanks lol
I think the same, if there's a new video, it must be high quality one, I don’t hesitate to click on
I've actually noticed before and always wondered what the story was behind the dark section of exhaust on the mighty F-1 engines before the flames start. Thank you from a layman, Tim and team!! :-))
The other thing that I find amazing about the fuel cooled nozzles is the there are so many redundancies that is some tubes end up with holes, they just plug them up with gold plugs and keep it moving, I cannot remember the correct percentage of plugged holes before it's unsafe but I was surprised it was so much.
Man, your way of explaining things as complex as this subject is amazing! you're a great teacher!
This is easily one of the best videos I've ever seen on YouTube. When you said "this is rocket science", it blew my mind that you were presenting the information in such an easily accesible way. Instant subscribe.
Great presentation. I can't remember when I learned so much from a single clip. You answered a lot of questions, in an excellent manner. Thank you sir.
So informative, I wasn't expecting a video today at all.. I'm so glad you take the time to research with your team and explain all of this to us Tim.. Thank you so much
Thank you. Thanks to you this topic has been so much easier to digest. This episode is absolutely amazing.
This is amazing content! Thank you for making it accessible!
Tim, these are excellent videos. I would suggest that you contact teachers that manage a Rocket after school program. They could use these deep dives as programs for the students to build their basic knowledge of rocketry.
Man those videos keep increasing on quality! Keep it up Tim, we can't wait for all the upcoming videos!
Thanks Tim. Thanks to videos like this one I am reconsidering my path in my early career as Chemical Engineer. Do not stop making those videos because with them you are able to show us how science becomes magic.
Lot of chemical engineering going on in rocket fuels
Jet turbine maintenance engineer here, we use most of these same methods to prevent aircraft engines eating themselves. Primarily film cooling though. Most engines tap off high pressure bleed air from the final stage of the compressor (which is already at around 300°c or more to cool the hot parts of the engines. Effectively in a turbine engine the combustion gases will NEVER actually contact any of the metal parts as they'd simply burn through it in seconds.
Most impressive one being that the turbine blades are grown from a single crystal of titanium, are hollow to utilise the regenerative cooling via channels inside and then vent those hot gasses via tiny holes in the surface to maintain a film of gas in between the blade itself and the combustion gases, all while spinning hundreds of times a second
was about to suggest tesla valve to direct airflow to cool the metal parts..
@Janne Salonen just about every metal part on an engine (other than the case itself) is already hollow for just that, Tesla valves would be an interesting approach especially one or two generations of engines ago, but modern engines have that many sensors and valves and computers to monitor and adjust thousands of parameters every second the current engines don't really have a need for it. Active computer controlled cooling is faster to respond if nothing else 🤷♂️
But yeah, best way to cool components is definitely to flow a fluid through it to absorb that heat and then either take it to be cooled or utilise that heat elsewhere, or in the case of gasses simply dump them straight into the flow path
@My Opinion Doesn't Matter I can 100% unequivocally guarantee that our turbine blades are a hollow monocrystaline titanium blade with a ceramic thermal protection layer. Inconel or even just nickel steels are more common, but not suited to all usecases. Ceramic blades have also been trialled but not into production as far as I am aware
@Yuki Onna Titanium itself or an alloy? What temperatures can it withstand?
Do you have any source on that, I could find only the alloys: titanium aluminides, which are used only for lower temperatures...
@My Opinion Doesn't Matter no source other than the manufacturer data itself and holding the blades in my hand. Won't go into specifics of which engine type exactly as I tend to be vague as to not identify my employer, internet after all, but I would assume it fair to say most new generation high bypass engines are running comfortably higher TITs as fuel efficiency isn't a major factor for our engines at all, so running richer to keep temps 'lower' isn't an issue either
Fascinating and wonderful. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge with us. I’m especially intrigued by ablative cooling, as a metaphor for psychological healing …
Stephen Mosca - 2022-01-13
During the Apollo program, when I was about 13 (1970), I was curious about rockets. I went to the library and found two books on rockets. I remember reading about regenerative cooling, and a light went off in my head as I was provided the answer to such a difficult problem in two seconds. The problem seemed exotic and insurmountable, yet it was ‘handled’ with a simple and elegant solution. I went on to become a structural design engineer from that initial effort. Hope you reach 10,000 such young men and women.
221 b - 2022-01-13
Engineers have been casually "breaking" the laws of physics for decades :)
Joe Vignolo r4u - 2022-01-13
@221 b They don't really break the laws of physics. They just find ways to work around them.
221 b - 2022-01-13
@Joe Vignolo r4u Hence the "..."
kenneth kho - 2022-01-16
@si markeyan nasa is a great place to build your hollywood career
Joe Vignolo r4u - 2022-01-16
@kenneth kho You mean by making movies like Apollo 13 and First Man?