A liquid propellant rocket engine includes a main turbo-pump and a boost turbo-pump. The main turbo-pump has a main pump with an outlet that is fluidly coupled with a supply line. The boost turbo-pump includes a housing, a rotor, a boost pump, and a turbine. The boost pump includes a first portion of the housing and a first portion the rotor. The turbine includes a second portion of the housing and a second portion of the rotor. The turbine has turbine blades attached to the second portion of the rotor and an inlet fluidly coupled with the supply line. The turbine has a plurality of circumferentially disposed feed lines defined by the second portion of the housing and not the first portion of the housing. The feed lines are fluidly coupled between the inlet and the turbine blades. The feed lines have an acute angle turn.

A pump apparatus includes: a rotational shaft; a hub portion mounted to the rotational shaft; a centrifugal pump vane mounted to a circumferential surface of the hub portion; an annular disc portion mounted to a tip end of the centrifugal pump vane; and an axial turbine blade mounted to an outer circumferential surface of the annular disc portion. A liquid flow passage through which a liquid flowing from a first side toward a second side in an axis direction of the rotational shaft flows into the centrifugal pump vane is formed at a radially inner side of the annular disc portion, and a gas flow passage through which a gas flowing from the second side toward the first side passes through the axial turbine blade is formed at a radially outer side of the annular disc portion.

The invention relates to the field of centrifugal pumps, and in particular it relates to a centrifugal pump (303, 403) comprising at least: an impeller (303a, 403a); a rotary shaft (302, 402) secured to said impeller (303a, 403a); a casing (320, 420) having an axial admission passage (325, 425); at least one first bearing (305, 405) supporting said rotary shaft (302, 402) in said casing (320, 420); and at least one dynamic seal (311, 411) around the rotary shaft (302, 402), the impeller (303a, 403a) being situated between the at least one dynamic seal (311, 411) and the axial admission passage (325, 425) of the pump (303, 403). The centrifugal pump (303, 403) also comprises, between the impeller (303a, 403a) and at least one dynamic seal (311, 411), an axial force compensation disk (330, 430) secured to the shaft (302, 402) and presenting a diameter greater than 70% of a diameter of the impeller (303a, 403a). A front face (330a, 430a) of the disk (330, 430) faces towards the impeller (303a, 403a) and is connected to a branch connection for fluid under pressure taken downstream from the pump (303, 403), and a rear face (330b, 430b) faces towards the dynamic seals (311, 411) and presents fins (330c, 430c) that are oriented radially, at least in part.

A fluid machine and method of operating the same includes a pump portion having a pump impeller chamber, a pump inlet and a pump outlet, a turbine portion having a turbine impeller chamber, a turbine inlet and a turbine outlet and a shaft extending between the pump impeller chamber and the turbine impeller chamber. The fluid machine also includes a first bearing and a second bearing spaced apart to form a balance disk chamber. A balance disk is coupled to the shaft and is disposed within the balance disk chamber and a turbine impeller coupled to the impeller end of the shaft disposed within the impeller chamber. A first thrust bearing is formed between the balance disk and the first bearing. The thrust bearing receives fluid from at least one of the pump inlet or the turbine outlet.

A turbopump machine includes a housing, a shaft rotatably supported in the housing on a set of bearings, an axial pump coupled with the shaft, a circumferential discharge volute fluidly coupled with the axial pump, and a turbine coupled with the shaft. The turbine includes a blade row disposed in an axial turbine flowpath that has an axial turbine flowpath discharge that is fluidly coupled with the circumferential discharge volute. A cooling passage is disposed between the housing and the shaft about the set of bearings. The cooling passage has a cooling passage discharge that is fluidly coupled with the circumferential discharge volute. The cooling passage discharge is adjacent the axial turbine flowpath discharge. A seal isolates the cooling passage discharge from the axial turbine flowpath discharge.

A system includes a monitoring system to monitor an operational parameter of a bearing assembly within a hydraulic turbocharger. The bearing monitoring system includes at least one sensor to monitor a relative position or operational parameter of one or more rotating components of the bearing assembly.

A small scale, high speed turbomachine is described, as well as a process for manufacturing the turbomachine. The turbomachine is manufactured by diffusion bonding stacked sheets of metal foil, each of which has been pre-formed to correspond to a cross section of the turbomachine structure. The turbomachines include rotating elements as well as static structures. Using this process, turbomachines may be manufactured with rotating elements that have outer diameters of less than four inches in size, and/or blading heights of less than 0.1 inches. The rotating elements of the turbomachines are capable of rotating at speeds in excess of 150 feet per second. In addition, cooling features may be added internally to blading to facilitate cooling in high temperature operations.

A turbine pump assembly includes a centrifugal pump including an inlet cavity with an inlet pressure, a control section having a turbine flow rate control spool valve, a shut off biasing mechanism located at a first end of the control section, and an inlet pressure piston located at a second end of the control section, and an inlet pressure fluid line fluidly connecting the inlet cavity with the inlet pressure piston. When the inlet pressure is above a predetermined threshold, the inlet pressure is configured to maintain the turbine flow rate control spool valve in an operational mode. When the inlet pressure is below the predetermined threshold, the shut off biasing mechanism is configured to apply a closing force to disable the turbine flow rate control spool valve thereby reducing a speed of a turbine of the turbine pump assembly.

A turbopump system includes a pump portion including a housing having a pressure release passageway disposed therein. The pump portion is disposed between a high pressure side and a low pressure side of a working fluid circuit. A drive turbine is coupled to the pump portion and configured to drive the pump portion to enable the pump portion to circulate a working fluid through the working fluid circuit. A pressure release valve is fluidly coupled to the pressure release passageway and configured to be positioned in an opened position to enable pressure to be released through the pressure release passageway and in a closed position to disable pressure from being released through the pressure release passageway.

Systems and methods for reducing the pressure of a first pressurized fluid, thereby reducing the temperature of the pressurized fluid, and utilization of the reduced-pressure and temperature fluid to cool a second fluid. Such an approach can enable a reduction in the size and weight of a hydraulic system, utilize waste energy in a system, and/or minimize electrical power requirements of a system, among other benefits.