Figure 1. Our Frictionless Ball Valve (FBV) for Air Force Reuseable Liquid Rocket Engines
The Air Force needs highly reliable, reusable, low-cost engine valves for reusable liquid rocket booster engines. Under a Phase I SBIR contract with the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), we developed a Frictionless Ball Valve (FBV) to meet Air Force needs. Our FBV uses friction-free hydrostatic bearings to maintain tight clearance seals and eliminate wear, which makes our FBV highly reliable and reusable. The friction-free operation reduces requirements for actuator torque by a factor of two, which permits the use of small lightweight actuators and, therefore, reduces engine weight and costs. In addition, a low count of long-life parts further reduces costs. In Phase I, we will designed, modeled, simulated, built, and demonstrated throttling and sealing with a reduced-scale breadboard valve. In Phase II, we will optimize our FBV design to maximize performance and reliability and minimize costs, and we will build and test an optimized FBV. In Phase III, we will sell our FBV for many applications in the government and private sector.
The Air Force needs highly reliable, reusable, low-cost engine valves for reusable liquid rocket booster engines. Under a Phase I SBIR contract with the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), we developed a Frictionless Ball Valve (FBV) to meet Air Force needs. Our FBV uses friction-free hydrostatic bearings to maintain tight clearance seals and eliminate wear, which makes our FBV highly reliable and reusable. The friction-free operation reduces requirements for actuator torque by a factor of two, which permits the use of small lightweight actuators and, therefore, reduces engine weight and costs. In addition, a low count of long-life parts further reduces costs. In Phase I, we will designed, modeled, simulated, built, and demonstrated throttling and sealing with a reduced-scale breadboard valve. In Phase II, we will optimize our FBV design to maximize performance and reliability and minimize costs, and we will build and test an optimized FBV. In Phase III, we will sell our FBV for many applications in the government and private sector.