Solid Propellant Ignition and Unsteady Combustion Processes.
Abstract
The research carried out under the grant was aimed at furthering the scientific understanding of nonsteady propellant combustion behavior in rocket motor chambers. Controlled nonsteady flow and burning conditions were produced in laboratory-scale solid rocket motors by developing a device that modulated the throat area of the primary nozzle. Modulation frequencies up to 2400 Hz were obtained. The modulated throat rocket motor is being used to acquire data using AP composite propellant grains. Cold flow tests were used to study the acoustic modes and nozzle discharge characteristics. Computerized techniques were developed for conducting spectral analyses of head-end and nozzle-end pressure data. In addition, the equations describing the nonsteady one-dimensional gas dynamics and propellant combustion were formulated, and a comprehensive numerical solution was developed. The present solution takes into account the couplings among the oscillating nozzle flow, the nonsteady chamber flow, and erosive burning. Since pressure and velocity oscillations can be made to occur and decay in high loading density rocket motors with realistic grain configurations, the experiment is expected to produce propellant/chamber response functions that are relatively easy to interpret, compared to the difficult to interpret T-burner response functions.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Nov 01, 1976
- Accession Number
- ADA035439
Entities
People
- Leonard H. Caveny
- Martin Summerfield
Organizations
- Princeton University