ANALYTICAL INVESTIGATION OF ROCKET ENGINE PERFORMANCE DEGRADATION DUE TO THE PRESENCE OF AN INERT DILUENT.

Abstract

The primary purpose of the investigation was to determine the degration of theoretical rocket engine performance which results from the introduction of nitrogen as an inert diluent into the oxidizer of the hydrogen-oxygen propellant combination. Also, the actual performance which can be attained in a rocket motor with such propellants was explored. A program for computation of theoretical performance was written for the IBM 1620 Data Processing System. The rocket performance parameters of characteristic velocity, thrust coefficient and specific impulse were calculated. Theoretical performance was computed and analyzed for chamber pressures of 300 and 150 psia at a nozzle area ratio of 4.00:1 over a range of mixture ratios from 0.15 to 0.50 of stoichiometric for nitrogen fractions of 0, 0.20, 0.40, 0.60 and 0.75. Characteristic velocity for a nitrogen fraction of 0.75 indicated a degradation to 60-63% of the pure oxygen value at the same equivalence ratio. (Author)

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jun 01, 1964
Accession Number
AD0604824

Entities

People

  • Fredrik E. Anderson

Organizations

  • Air Force Institute of Technology

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Data Processing
  • Degradation
  • Engines
  • Nitrogen
  • Nozzle Area Ratio
  • Propellants
  • Rocket Engines
  • Rockets
  • Specific Impulse

Readers

  • Combustion Dynamics and Shock Wave Physics.
  • Computational Modeling and Simulation
  • Internal Combustion Engine (ICE) Technology.