Approximate Nonlinear Analysis of Solid Rocket Motors and T-Burners. Volume I. Analysis and Results.

Abstract

An approximate theory based on the Galerkin method was developed to describe the nonlinear behavior of axial-mode combustion instability in solid-propellant rocket motors and T-burners. For motors with linear combustion driving and linear particle damping (gasdynamic nonlinearities only), growth rates, limiting amplitudes and waveforms were in reasonable agreement with available 'exact' numerical solutions and experimental data. For T-burners the predicted limiting amplitudes were considerably higher than the experimentally measured values. To assess the importance of combustion nonlinearities, a heuristic nonlinear combustion response model was introduced into the approximate analysis. REsults obtained with both the approximate model and the 'exact' analysis showed that nonlinear combustion effects may be important for moderate amplitudes and may account for pulsed instabilities in some cases. The higher Reynolds number correction to the Stokes Drag Law was also included in both the approximate and 'exact' analyses. Results show that nonlinear particle effects become increasingly important as particle size and/or frequency increases. Also, particle nonlinearities may have a significant effect on optimum particle size for maximum damping and may account for pulsed instabilities in some cases. (Author)

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jul 01, 1977
Accession Number
ADA044298

Entities

People

  • B. T. Zinn
  • E. A. Powell
  • M. S. Padmanabhan

Organizations

  • Georgia Tech

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acoustics
  • Burning Rate
  • Combustion
  • Combustion Products
  • Computational Fluid Dynamics
  • Computational Science
  • Computer Programs
  • Differential Equations
  • Energy Transfer
  • Heat Transfer
  • Particle Size
  • Plastic Explosives
  • Propellant Grains
  • Rocket Engines
  • Solid Propellants
  • Wave Equations
  • Waveforms

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Plasma Physics / Magnetohydrodynamics
  • Rocket Propulsion.
  • Structural Dynamics.