TRIMODE ROCKET PROPULSION FEASIBILITY PROGRAM PHASE I.
Abstract
This document presents the work accomplished during Phase I in the design study, analysis and experimental investigation to initially establish the feasibility of a 'Trimode' rocket engine concept and to define its operating characteristics. The word trimode signifies a rocket engine which could either function in a high performing bipropellant mode, or as a monopropellant engine with either of the propellants in two lower performing, fully redundant, secondary modes in the event of primary mode failure. The bipropellant system investigated here utilizes 90% hydrogen peroxide as an oxidizer and anhydrous hydrazine as a fuel. Both of these components are also energetic monopropellants. The design study and analysis showed that such an engine system can be designed to be fundamentally competitive in performance, size and weight with conventional liquid bipropellant engines. Experimental engine hardware (100 lb thrust level) was built and critical experiments conducted to verify the attainability of performance and response goals to investigate whether physical phenomena and problems are associated with the concept which would render it not feasible. The experiments yielded fundamentally positive results and supported the attainability of good performance. One unexplained phenomenon was observed in long ignition delays on initial starts of the gas-gas combustor from ambient temperature. However, no hard starts were associated with these ignition delays. The occurance of the ignition delay is believed to be associated with transient gas temperature and possibly flame propagation velocity factors and can be resolved by further development work and refinement of the gas injector and hydrazine catalyst bed. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jul 15, 1967
- Accession Number
- AD0385593
Entities
People
- Martin G. Drexhage
- Neil I. Safeer
Organizations
- Bell Aircraft Corporation