Turbopump Turbines developed by Volvo

S. Trollheden, B. Bergenlid, U. Palmnäs, S. Brodin

Volvo Aero Corporation
Trollhättan, Sweden

Abstract
This paper describes the design and development process for the Rocket Turbopump turbines, which has been
developed by Volvo.
Volvo has designed Vulcain, Vulcain 2 and Vinci turbines for hydrogen and oxygen turbopump, and is in the midst
of testing the newly developed turbines for Vinci turbopumps.
Conceptual work for the third generation of Vulcain turbopumps is under process.
The paper describes the main technology drivers and their application on to the designs produced. The design
process and the evolution of it is described and discussed.

1. Introduction
The company has its base and history in making the engines for the Swedish Air force. The first engine was a piston
engine during the 1930’s and since the second world war several turbojet engines has been developed for the
Swedish Air force. The latest being the one on the 39 Gripen plane. There has also been work performed on missiles
with both pressure and turbopump fed engines. Consequently Volvo has a long history in Turbmachinery. It was
therfore natural that Volvo Aero became involved in the design and development of Turbopump turbines in the
beginning of 1980’s. It was the initial work on the development of the Vulcain Engine which was started and it was
the first cryogenic main stage engine developed in Europe.
In the mid 1990’s the development of the Vulcain 2 engine began with an increase of thrust and specific impulse
compared to Vulcain engine. The engine which is currently being developed is the Vinci. It is a expander cycle
engine for the upper stage of Ariane 5.
The development of the Vulcain, Vulcain 2 and Vinci engine is being performed within ESA contracts under the
lead of the French Space Agency, CNES. The main contractor for the engines and the Hydrogen turbopumps is
SNECMA in Vernon. Avio in Turin, Italy, has the responsibility for the Oxygen turbopumps.
Volvo has also been involved in the manufacturing of the Rotors and Stator for Turbopump turbine for the Viking
Engine on the Ariane 4 launcher.
In the case of Vulcain, Vulcain 2 and Vinci, Volvo has been responsible for the design and development of the
turbines for the hydrogen and oxygen Turbopumps. These has lead Volvo to become the European focal point for
Rocket Engine turbopump turbines with respect to Technology, Development and Manufacturing.
Volvo has performed conceptual work for the third generatin of Vulcain turbopump turbines and the design is now
in a demonstrator program.
The Vinci engine is a reignitable cryogenic expander engine for the new upperstage of Ariane 5 rocket, intended to
succedeeing the current HM7 engine. Volvo is responsible for design and development for both turbopump turbines
and also for the manufacturing of turbine parts. The industrial setup is the same as for Vulcain with SNECMA
Moteurs as main contarctor for the engine and hydrogen turbopump and Avio S.p.A. for the oxygen turbopump.
The main driver for the Vinci engine is increased trust and reduced cost. The turbine concept, similar for both
turbines is to a large extend cost driven and is composed of shroudless bliskas, brazed shrouded stators and cast
outlet structures.
The Vinci turbines are small subsonic turbines where the material choices and manufacturing processes have been
optimised according to the main technology drivers noted below.

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 2. Main Technology Drivers
It is well known today that the increased competition in the commercial launch b usiness is driving the need for
higher performance, lower recurrent cost and higher flexibility. The main technology drivers are
- Low cost technology with high reliability
- Robust design and processes for all components
- Short lead-time and low risk during development
- High efficiency and performance
The consequence of these technology drivers are reflected in the below presented turbine parts design by Volvo.

2.1 Rotors
For turbine rotors these new technology drivers have been introduced through step by step on different turbines. An
example of this process is shown in Figure 1 and 2.

Figure 1 Evolution of blades with cost optimised design to the right

Design of separate blades has been optimized in order to reduce manufacturing costs and maintaining the
functionality of the blade as can be seen in figure 1.
Further cost reduction of rotors is only possible by avoiding separate blade designs and to integrate the blade in the
rotor disk. In the case of shrouded rotor design a well-known method is the machine the blades by EDM. Volvo has
developed and patented an improved EDM process for manufacturing shrouded blade designs as blisks. See figure
2.

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 Figure 2 Part of Vulcain disk with integrated blades made by patented EDM method

Shroud-less rotor blisk design is developed and used in The Vinci application, see figure 3. Machining the blade by
radial milling reduces the manufacturing time compared to shrouded rotors. The blade design is closely optimized in
relation to machining constraints.

Figure 3 Titanium turbine blisk made by radial milling for Vinci hydrogen turbopump

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 2.2 Stators
In the same way as for the rotors the technologies for turbine stators has evolved through different steps. In Figure 4
a stator is shown which has a brazed shroud.

Figure 4 Stator made by radial milling of vanes and patented brazing method of separate shroud for the Vinci
engine.
The manufacturing methd for stators with radial milling and brazing of separate shrouds gives a cost effective,
roubust and high performant design.

3. Design Process
The design and development process can basically be broken down to some fundamental steps,
- Technology studies
- Concepts choices
- Detailed design
- Manufacturing
- Testing
The process is the same regardless if it’s a demonstrator or a full-scale development. We will below give some
highlights and lesson learned during the development of different generation of turbines.

3.1 Techno logy studies

Volvo has a continuous program for studying new and coming technologies and manufacturing methods. Successful
programs have been an experimental study of shroud-less turbine rotors where turbine loss models were extracted
forming the basis for Vinci engines. Further, patented manufacturing methods for blisk manufacturing based on
EDM and brazing method for shroud and radially milled vanes have been produced.
These studies are creating fundamental knowledge for future design activities.

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 3.2 Concepts
It has been recognized many times that the concept choices are the most important ones during the development of a
new production in terms of development risks and recurrent cost. The process really sets the complete scene for the
product. Volvo has a “proven by test” concept process, defining how all the requirements are translated into the
design. This is in particular a process highly integrated with the customer, in order to optimize the concept and
verify the requirements.

3.3 Design
During the development of the 1:st generation of turbine for the Vulcain Engine the main lessons learned was:
- Requirements set from a design perspective, leading to complicated processes and a frequent out of tolerance
situation.
- Long lead time due to traditional s erial process of activities
- Large uncertainty in the loading gave big margins
- Significant and costly amount of testing activities in Volvo turbine test rig.

The lesson learned from the 1:st generation was taken into account for the development of the 2:nd generation
turbine. The experience led to a work process where:

- Requirements still set from a design perspective, but with compromises for manufacturing needs.
- Work process towards the first HW more in parallel.
- 90 % less testing in turbine test rig.
- CFD tool a strong contributor in the design and verification process.
- More precise experience gained from instrumented testing and HW inspection after test.
- FMECA being used as an efficient tool for risk reduction
The FMECA based planning can be divided into the following steps
1) Functional tree, describing the actual function of each part of the turbine
2) FMECA where classification of failure modes with respect to risk and consequence is made
3) QA, quality assurance provisions are linked to the different failure scenarios
4) Subsequent actions for the provisions are defined and inserted into the PVE (document defining all actions
planned to ensure the technical specifications)
Plans for the project are then made based on the actions set up in the PVE and fro m QA provisions.

The results and lesson learned of previous developments has given the 3:rd and latest generation of turbine
development which is characterized by:
- Requirements set from a manufacturing perspective, but with compromises for design needs. New concepts
introduced (thanks to technology preparation.)
- Higher degree of simultaneous engineering.
- Performance verification, through testing, only before first delivery.
- Intimate coupling between performance testing in air and numerical methods for turbine characterization
- 3D CFD unsteady design/analysis methods used including coupling to mechanical structure.
- Strong focus on optimization of the overall TP architecture leading to early and deep Volvo involvement.

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 3.4 Manufacturing
Manufacturing engineering and design engineering has become much more integrated in recent development
programs. During Vinci development manufacturing engineering was evolved from the very beginning and the
Vinci engine was to a large extent optimized with respect to manufacturing limits and capabilities.
Lessons learned from previous projects have lead to optimizing use of CAD models by building the models as
manufactured and hereby maximizing the use of the models and minimizing sources for errors.

3.5 Testing
The subsystem and engine testing is of course the final verification of the function even if the analytical tools have
developed rapidly the last decades. Below is some lesson learned from the testing activities for different generation
of turbine development:

1:st generation

- A significant amount of material testing in hydrogen was performed.

- Turbine component testing.
- TP and Engine testing with limited instrumentation.

2:nd generation
- Less component and material testing.
- Focus on TP and Engine testing.
3:rd generation
- Dedicated turbine component testing.
- Focus on Engine level testing.
- Air testing in combination with analytical tools for performance validation

Conclusion
Two generations of impulse type turbines for ELV flight qualified.
Third generation has been conceptually developed and is in demonstration program.
First generation of turbines for upper stage expander cycle engine are designed, manufactured and tested.
A persistent development of manufacturing processes leading to patents.
Continuous improvements on design and manufacturing processes based on feed back from current development
programs
More than twenty years of continuous turbo pump turbine developments has created orderly processes and an “up to
speed” team.

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 Acknowledgments
The Swedish National Space Board and the European Space Agency supported this work.
The work on the oxygen TP turbine development was performed under contract with Avio in the frame of the
development of the Vulcain, Vulcain 2 and Vinci engines, SNECMA is the prime contractor under contracts of
CNES/ESA.

The work on the fuel TP turbine development was performed under contract with SNECMA in the frame of the
development of the Vulcain, Vulcain 2 and Vinci engines, SNECMA as prime contractor under contracts of
CNES/ESA.

The authors would like to thank their colleagues at Volvo and the complete team of the participating companies for
their contribution in the design of the turbines and support in preparing this paper.

References
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Johnsson, S. Trollheden

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