Study on the Structure and Combustion Characteristics of Aerospace Engines

The propulsion performance and reliability of space engines are constrained by the degree of matching between structural design and combustion characteristics, yet systematic reviews of the coupling mechanisms between them are still lacking. This paper takes liquid rocket engines, solid rocket motors, hybrid rocket engines, and electric propulsion systems as the research objects. Employing a literature comparison and analysis method, it systematically examines the structural configurations, combustion characteristics, and the interrelations between them across these different engine types. The results reveal that injector geometry parameters determine combustion efficiency by governing the propellant atomization and mixing pathways; grain configuration and the burning rate pressure exponent jointly dictate the energy release characteristics of solid motors; the feedback loop between combustion chamber acoustic modes and heat release fluctuations constitutes the core mechanism triggering combustion instability; and the thermal design of regenerative cooling channels, together with the ablation behavior of throat materials, defines the constraint boundary of thermal–structural coupling. These findings offer a systematic perspective on the closed-loop logic of "structure supporting combustion, combustion verifying structure." Future work can employ multi-physics coupled numerical simulations to quantify these coupling relationships, thereby informing engine design optimization.