Thrust Chamber demonstrator

Developed by ArianeGroup within ESA’s Future Launchers Preparatory Programme, this small-scale combustion chamber demonstrator helps to investigate flow and heat transfer phenomena on surfaces created by 3D printing – otherwise known as additive layer manufacturing.  

Prepared for testing, complete with instrumentation, it was hot-fired for 560 seconds at the DLR German Aerospace Center’s Lampoldshausen testing facility in Germany, on 18 February 2019. This demonstrator has a reference thrust of 2.5kN.

The photograph shows the combustion chamber and injector head, with the adapter rings for the DLR testing facility between them and a mounting plate. To the front, right is the igniter.