Does the jacket of tubes used to cool the nozzle and combustion chamber in a rocket engine also give it some structural strength? Does it have any function relating to withstanding the pressure of the byproduct gases, or is it for cooling purposes only?
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The walls of the combustion chamber are exposed to the pressure inside and should withstand it. – Uwe Aug 17 '17 at 20:20
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Take a look at this question: How are rocket nozzles made? In pictures there, you can see that the cooling jacket IS the nozzle in many cases.
In this picture I took of a flown, but scrapped SSME nozzle, you can see that the inside of the nozzle is constructed solely of the cooling tubes.
Here is a close-up.
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