Multi-Criteria Decision Framework for Performance Evaluation of Liquid Hydrogen Rocket Fuel Systems with Different Oxidizers

The use of liquid hydrogen (LH2) in rocket propulsion systems is among the most critical technologies enabling highly efficient space exploration. Fuel-oxidizer combinations directly impact mission performance, safety, and sustainability. In the literature, determining which oxidizer to use to obtain an efficient combination in experimental studies is a valuable area of research. However, evaluating different alternatives according to various criteria in experimental studies is expensive, time-consuming, and quite dangerous. This study aims to provide decision-makers with analytical support through a novel multi-criteria decision-making methodology. In this context, the simple weight calculation (SIWEC) method is integrated to determine the weights of the criteria, and the mulTi-noRmalization mUlti-distance aSsessmenT (TRUST) method is integrated to evaluate the oxidizers. The results show that the most important criterion is combustion, followed by environmental sustainability, applicability, cost, and operational safety. The foremost oxidizer, according to the analyses, parametric sensitivity analysis scenarios, and comparative analyses, is overwhelmingly LH2-liquid oxygen (LOX). In all analyses, fluorine (F2) ranked second, followed by the FLOX mixture in third place, and ozone (O3) in last place. In addition, sensitivity analyses based on α and β parameter variations and comparative analyses were conducted to evaluate the robustness and stability of the proposed decision-making framework.