A team from Empresarios Agrupados International (EAI) formed by engineers specialised in space propulsion simulation participated in the conference in Rome (2-6 May) in order to present the new capabilities of the EcosimPro simulation tool and of its space propulsion toolkits.
The European Space Propulsion Conference 2016 was held in Rome during the first week of May. It was organised by the European Space Agency and other bodies involved in the space sector. A team from EAI formed by engineers specialized in space propulsion simulation participated in this conference in order to present details of the products available for space propulsion simulation. The different products available that use the EcosimPro platform were displayed at a stand: ESPSS (European Space Propulsion Simulation System), FLUIDAPRO, PIPELIQTRAN, etc. Notably, ESPSS is the most widely used simulation product by European industry.
The EcosimPro/ESPSS toolkit was developed by a European consortium of companies and universities led by EAI and is currently the official ESA tool for 0D-1D modeling of space propulsion systems. ESPSS models propulsion systems for spacecraft and satellites, including firing processes, fuel tank evolution, heat exchangers, mechanical systems and electronic pressure regulators. It can model, for instance, any type of liquid rocket motor with one or more combustion chambers, including turbo-machinery (pumps, compressors and turbines) and two-phase cooling systems.
Among the new features developed in the libraries over the last year and presented in this forum are the simulation of a propulsion system coupled with the dynamics of a spacecraft, the inclusion of new high precision numerical schemes which are very efficient in terms of simulation speed, the inclusion of a module for the definition of the advanced geometry of solid fuel, the validation of solid and hybrid combustors compared to experimental results, and the inclusion of new components and new options.
EcosimPro/ESPSS is currently being used by the majority of European aerospace companies for the design of new space propulsion systems. This can be seen from the large number of papers presented by companies during the conference that included models developed using this software. EAI presented a paper entitled ESPSS Model of a Simplified Combined-Cycle Engine for Supersonic Cruise.
On 5th May, ESA and EAI organised the fifth workshop for EcosimPro/ESPSS users which hosted some 40 engineers from the European space propulsion industry. Apart from presenting the latest improvements and developments underway, a round table was also held at which users could propose new improvements for future versions.