Reverse Engineering the BE-4 Rocket

Description:
Hi Rocketeers! There's finally a giant rocket engine to talk about that I'm not under NDA for! We're exploring all the parts of the BE-4 that I can deduce just from looking at some pictures ULA posted on twitter.
The Everyday Astronaut's primer on engine cycles: everydayastronaut.com/raptor-...
Turbopump Explainer: • How do centrifugal pum...
Help me build rocket engines! / charliegarcia
Ref 1. Fig 25, Cavitation Experiments on Turbopump Inducers and Hydrofoils at Alta/Centrospazio: Overview and Future Activities - Scientific Figure on ResearchGate. Available from: www.researchgate.net/figure/D...

[@AstroCharlie]

I'll keep editing this comment as the corrections come in (public domain information only please!) 1. Around 5:30, what I call the 'Main Oxidizer Valve' is actually the oxidizer boost pump, which further helps alleviate cavitation.

[@jeffstorm]

Your instrumentation wiring is the "Pumpkin Wire". The color using an international orange is the standard in the Aerospace industry!

[@ryantyznar2247]

God i love rocketry the *public domain information only* disclaimer is gold

[@cylosgarage]

Big Scott Manley energy lol

[@sohan239]

You talked about the mechanical ground systems equipment which nobody talks about,given the significant role they play in making those engines..Great job!

[@blastfiendsunite420]

Very insightful. I would enjoy watching videos like this on other rocket engines as well. Maybe an SSME or Raptor video, heck F-1 would be a good one too.

[@AstroCharlie]

Unfortunately I'm under NDA's for raptor, but I could definitely do SSME or F-1, and probably better since there's much more information to work from.

[@blastfiendsunite420]

@@AstroCharlie Wow that's impressive! I love videos with all the little details, even if I don't fully understand them. Lol

[@revenevan11]

Great analysis given how little the images really give to go on, and detailed yet clear explanations. I'm gonna have to binge your rocket engine series at some point to catch up! (I'll likely stick to some basic solid sugar rocket motors to do myself for now though lol)

[@publicmail2]

Good video and explanation of pipe config to reduce stress, you can see it on you AC compressor copper lines too.

[@pepsidoggo1598]

Imagine a collab between Scott Manley, Tim Dodd (Everyday Astronaut), Mark Rober, and this guy

[@marcozolo3536]

And Angry Astronaut

[@mikeyslab2471]

I’m digging the ‘stache :) as pointed out before Scott Manley vibes. Great video!

[@Hector-Ramos]

Tremendo video, thanks for the breakdown!

[@skizzik121]

I love that you said cavitation makes small pops. They just also happen to have enough energy to spontaneously create photons on occasion like when the Mantis Shrimp punches something

[@josephparker3033]

Beautiful! Thank you!

[@vedantmomaya1533]

Awesome video , I now know atleast something about a rocket engine , it looks and might be tooooooo complex from outside ,u reallly made it look understandable ,thank u very much

[@mayurholla6509]

hey charlie, can you make a video explaining the GUI of rpa lite, i just can't get my head around it. thanks . Great video btw

[@beachboardfan9544]

Should make a vid like this for every engine! 👍

[@syedubaid4116]

great video, like half of rocket science of the rocket engine

[@melplishka5978]

The best explanation of a rocket engine fuel delivery I’ve seen yet. Well done. I think maybe you should help out B O lol.

[@ricardoholanda4340]

Quality content!

[@mrtnt5732]

Perfect, please feed me more of such great content

[@danielmonteiro6075]

Great video! Just out of curiosity, how much is the GNC computer responsible for managing the engines? Does it "just" send the desired angle and thrust to the engine controllers or does it have to worry about fuel flows and pressures and stuff like that?

[@AstroCharlie]

This depends on the specific engine and rocket, but I would guess on this one that the main flight computer commands a thrust level and the FADEC turns the knobs and pulls the levers to get that thrust level out of each specific engine.

[@Ithirahad]

Finally a video that - indirectly - answers "what are all those billions of tiny tubes??"

[@proto_hexagon5649]

11:00 Can you clarify this subject? The combustion chamber is at 300BAR due to the detonation gases. The turbopump must reach the 300Bar at least right? and injector aswell?

[@vonSmash]

Correct. He sort of touches on this a bit later on when he goes through and explain the CH4 Boost Pump, LOX Turbopump, Pre-Burner Manifold through to the Turbine Manifold and finally down (down as in relation to the picture at least) where it says "Hot Ox Rich Gas" which is the plumbing reaching the combustion chamber. So at 13:01 he mentions the small amount of fuel (CH4 / Methane) that continues on up through the middle of the CH4 Turbopump where it then reaches the CH4 Boost pump. He explains that the Boost pump raises the pressure of the liquid methan up to a "guesstimation" of 10 000 psi which is equal to about 689 bar. This has to be done because later on when the Methane and Oxygen (fuel and oxidiser) has been mixed they'll go through the Turbine Manifold where the pressure is reduced some, so therefor (as he says) the pressure before the Turbine Manifold has to be much higher so that the lower pressure propellant (fuel+oxidiser) coming out of the Turbine still is at a higher pressure then the combustion chamber, exactly like you assumed it needed to be :) From there he continues explaining the route of the LOX (liquid oxygen) up to the pre-burner where the two fluids mix and so on. At least, this is how I understand it and I'm no rocket scientist at all so take it as that and see if it makes sense.. and possibly confirm it with a real rocket scientist ;) hehe

[@joeymurphy2464]

At 1:52 or so, I was surprised to hear that the engine would be attached to the gimbal structure - I guess I had assumed the gimbal was considered part of the engine assembly, but I guess Blue only provides the combustiony parts of the engine. That makes me wonder what avionics are included when the engine is given to ULA. Does ULA have to develop their own control loop monitoring pressures and temperatures and controlling throttles, or does a Blue computer do this and just receive high-level "Go to this thrust level" command? I find it interesting that the rockets I'm most familiar with (primarily due to their companys' openness with information) are SpaceX and Rocket Lab - both of which produce their own engines. ULA and BO are both less PR-oriented and share less info. Case in point - I had to look up what BE-4's cycle was (oxygen-rich staged combustion) while Raptor I think is known off the top of everyone's head to be FFSC. The point is, it's interesting that the more public-facing companies are also the ones that don't obtain outside engines from Russia, Aeroject Rocketdyne, Agile Space (nice shirt!) or other rocket propulsion contractors.

[@AstroCharlie]

I was also surprised that the gimbal was not part of the BE-4 structure, but I guess ULA and Blue have different gimbal requirements (ULA both has more space to gimbal and needs more gimbal from each engine)

[@James1475561]

With highly technical companies, openness goes with competence, also the secret nature of information comes from the lack of competence in their technologies.

[@SimplySpace]

Great video, I really enjoyed it!

[@RiderRickMaker]

Oh yeah!

[@hypercomms2001]

02:37: it is interesting they do not appear to be feeding the fuel through the rocket "bell" as they did on the Saturn 5 that was done to cool the rocket "bell"... any reason why that is not being done here?

[@AstroCharlie]

They are, this is the 'regen' nozzle I mention where most of the fuel from the first turbopump goes.

[@davidamaral5100]

Is this engine a tubelarwall construction or a double wall type

[@RiderRickMaker]

greetings from Portugal by the way..!

[@berkarkan1611]

Where is the pipe that carries the LOX from the turbopump to the preburner?

[@albertgerard4639]

video starts at 11:00

[@emmetray9703]

Can not find BE-4 on Amazon. :( :(

[@mikeyslab2471]

Can’t tell if this is a troll or not, but a engine this large is not available for sale lol.

[@emmetray9703]

@@mikeyslab2471 it's so sad ...

[@poxyglue8611]

Hey Charlie. I’m a 14 year old kid becoming interested in rocketry and aeronautical engineering, living abroad. In this country, laws prevent chemicals and materials used in rocketry (in fear of bombs) from being sold, even through educational institutes. I don’t fear complex maths, nor do I tremble at the thought of approaching endearing theoretical concepts. You provide a strong inspiration to others, providing a a vivid insight to the world of industrial aerospace. So, Charlie, I’m here to ask you, where would I start?

[@hindenberg25557]

Hey Poxy, not certain what Charlie might say here but as a mechanical engineer, maybe I can help. I can tell you that you don't need combustible material to learn and grow towards being a strong engineer in the aerospace industry. Definitely do hands-on projects that excite you, as doing is the best way of learning. Any project that involves learning thermodynamics/heat transfer, fluid dynamics, structural loading, CAD modeling, material science, etc. will put you on a good path. I wish the best for you!

[@-danR]

Re: CAD apps: under no circumstances try to just dive into any sort of CAD application and think you'll get anywhere by mucking around with it. Go through a disciplined systematic step-by-step learning course. And get the closest you can to the real deal, not FreeCad. I recommend Fusion 360, which will give you one year free, a hybrid cloud/desktop system, a ton of (often confusing, but helpful) "Why can't I's!? ..." and "How do I's !?..." both on their site and on 3rd party youTube F360 tutorial channels, and is made by the same people who made industrial standard AutoCAD itself. Do not do 2d scratch work with Fusion, though. Do that with inkScape, and drop your sketches into Fusion. 2D sketching is one of F360's few achilles heels. I learned that the hard way. I also went through a month of some 10 different apps and 20 websites' recommendations and "best 10" lists to learn this. I've blazed a trail for you. Since you're only 14, you won't get a special college discount on a better deal either. If you were 18 it might be a different story. No, you can't do engineering with Blender, etc. You can make some sIick-looking work, but it's

[@Ameliaross106]

I think it’s safe to say that plumbing is one of the worst things to manage in a rocket engine of this size.

[@joeymurphy2464]

A phrase I've heard is "The hard part of building a rocket isn't the 'rocket science', it's plumbing". Or, "Rocket science is easy. Rocket engineering is where it gets tricky!"

[@norbertsos4894]

Can you do the same for the raptor engine?

[@melplishka5978]

I think if it’s possible for B O to goto go to a dual pump system. This way it will reduce turbine speeds and reduce stress on them. Seems to be what’s holding them back. Not really too familiar with this system yet.

[@Brixxter]

There is an engine missing in the video title! :P

[@Brixxter]

Please, fix the title :-(

[@JackMott]

thats a big boy

[@jack_brooks]

I like the content of your video, but it needs some sort of cursor or highlighting mechanism to help the viewer follow along. I'm having trouble figuring out where to look while following along. Even if it's just a simple video screen capture of the images being drawn on with MS Paint. "The Signal Path" youtube channel keeps it simple and it is still very effective.

[@-danR]

Thanks for pointing that out, and I'm baffled by all the "great explanation, thanks!" responses which could only be fairly directed to something by Scott Manley or Tim Dodd who don't leave a pedagogical rough spot unrepaired. This more like university lecture slides with no laser pointer, or something suitable for rocket engineers themselves.

[@aerojetrocketdyners-2538]

Tory stache vs Charlie stache.

[@stephensfarms7165]

BE-4, CANNOT COMPARE TO RATURE 2.0. ULA, made a big mistake going to BO, to build an engine for ULA. ULA will be lucky if they get engines by end of the year.

[@skizzik121]

2:53 "down and to the right"??? Don't you mean Back and to the Left? #KennedyWasAnInsideJob!

[@pyrusrex2882]

I love what Blue Origin is doing, but I don't understand why they go about things in such secrecy. Look at SpaceX. Elon is constantly updating people on multiple different media platforms that detail the development process, iterative changes, and seems to make his company very open and transparent, which has attracted a HUGE following of "fans", which in turn focuses public attention on his company in a way that no rocket developer has ever done. It gets people talking about SpaceX, and that kind of publicity has done nothing but good things for them. In contrast, Jeff Bezos and Blue Origin seem to run their program like the Soviets did. I've been literally searching everywhere for BE-4 updates, test videos, performance data and the like, but there's hardly ANY discussion and developmental transparency. He needs to realize that if were to put more of their work out on the Web, he would attract a much bigger following. As we know, in the age of digital information sharing and social media, simple public opinion can literally translate into more dollar signs and recognition. You'd think the richest man in the world would have figured this out already. I mean, come on, New Shepard has had around a dozen perfect test flights, yet we literally know nothing about when people may be flying on it. Do they call him Comrade Chief Designer instead of Jeff?

[@-danR]

SpaceX is just as secretive in their hard-core internals as anyone else. If you know a whole lot about the Raptor or Merlin engines, it's because experts have parsed what has been provided publicly with almost obsessive-compulsive zeal.

[@jackhildebrand4323]

LoL.....

[@WWeronko]

BE-4 doesn't as of yet, work at all. Blue Origin are having serious turbine problems. It is hard to be overly complementary about the BE-4 when it took so long to develop and continues to not function.

[@RickTheClipper]

Unless the engine did fly successful, it i just a design study

[@dillonbledsoe7680]

Fuck bozoz