Rocket chamber heat exchanger

1. A rocket engine chamber comprising:

a back structure and a heat exchanger structure located radially inwardly of said back structure;

said heat exchanger structure comprising a plurality of integrally formed cooling passageways with adjacent ones of said passageways having a common sidewall structure;

said heat exchanger structure being formed from a copper based material;

each of said passageways having a top section which includes a hot gas contact surface which contacts hot gases flowing through said rocket engine chamber and an inner surface which forms part of a respective passageway;

each of said contact surface and said inner surface being formed by an arc of a circle which extends from one sidewall of said respective passageway to an opposite sidewall of said respective passageway;

each of said sidewalls being non-circular and having a non-uniform thickness;

each of said passageways having a bottom section;

said bottom surface having a non-uniform thickness and a smooth peripheral surface; and

said back structure having a smooth inner peripheral surface which mates with the smooth peripheral surface of the bottom section.

2. A rocket engine chamber according to claim 1 , wherein each of said passageways has a near circular cross-section.

3. A rocket engine chamber according to claim 1 , wherein each of said passageways has a circular cross-section.

4. A rocket engine chamber according to claim 1 , further comprising a chamber section and a nozzle section and each of said passageways extending through said chamber section and said nozzle section and forming an inner surface of said chamber and nozzle sections.

5. A rocket engine chamber according to claim 1 , wherein said cooling passageways are machined cooling passageways.

6. A rocket engine chamber according to claim 1 , wherein said cooling passageways are formed from a sprayed copper material.

7. The rocket engine chamber according to claim 1 , wherein said hot gas contact surface has a scalloped configuration.

8. The rocket engine chamber according to claim 1 , wherein said back structure and said heat exchanger structure are annular.

9. The heat exchanger structure according to claim 1 , wherein said copper based material is a dispersion strengthened copper alloy.

10. The heat exchanger structure according to claim 1 , wherein said copper based material is GRCop-84 copper alloy.

11. A heat exchanger structure comprising:

a plurality of integrally formed cooling passageways with adjacent ones of said passageways having a common sidewall structure;

said heat exchanger structure being formed from a copper based material;

each of said passageways having a top section which includes a hot gas contact surface which contacts hot gases flowing through a chamber and an inner surface;

each of said contact surface and said inner surface being formed by an arc of a circle which extends from one sidewall of a respective passageway to an opposite sidewall of the respective passageway;

each of said sidewalls being non-circular and having a non-uniform thickness;

each of said passageways having a bottom section;

said bottom surface having a non-uniform thickness and a smooth peripheral surface; and

a back structure having a smooth inner peripheral surface which mates with the smooth peripheral surface of the bottom section.

12. A heat exchanger structure according to claim 11 , wherein each of said passageways has a near circular cross-section.

13. A heat exchanger structure according to claim 11 , wherein each of said passageways has a circular cross-section.

14. The heat exchanger structure according to claim 11 , wherein said hot gas contact surface has a scalloped configuration.

15. The heat exchanger structure according to claim 11 , wherein said back structure and said heat exchanger structure are annular.