THE EFFECT OF PROPELLANT ENERGY AND MASS DISTRIBUTION ON ROCKET PROPULSION EFFICIENCY.

Abstract

The effect of varying the exhaust gas velocity of a rocket so that the exhaust gases possess little or no kinetic energy in an earth observer's frame of reference is examined. Under certain boundary conditions an improvement in terminal velocity of 10 to 20% is obtained relative to a rocket with fixed exhaust velocity. Given a fixed budget of energy per unit payload mass, the optimum mass of working fluid into which to distribute this energy (for maximum burnout speed) is calculated as a function of gravitational field strength. (Author)

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 05, 1957
Accession Number
AD0609513

Entities

People

  • Howard S. Seifert

Organizations

  • TRW Inc.

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Boundaries
  • Efficiency
  • Energy
  • Exhaust Gases
  • Fluids
  • Gases
  • Gravitational Fields
  • Kinetic Energy
  • Propellants
  • Rocket Propulsion
  • Terminals

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Control Systems Engineering.
  • Electrical Engineering
  • Rocket Propulsion.