Application of Laser Diffraction Techniques to Particle Sizing in Solid Propellant Rocket Motors

Abstract

Measurements of forward scattered light were used to determine the particulate behavior in the combustor and across the exhaust nozzle of a small solid propellant rocket motor. A MALVERN 2600 was successful in measuring multimodal particle distributions, and a locally designed system was successfully applied to monomodal distributions. The propellant tested was a reduced smoke propellant containing one-percent zirconium carbide by weight. The results suggested that ZrC reacts to completion on or very near the propellant surface. Zirconium oxide (ZrO2) agglomerates are believed to form on the surface. Surface agglomerate size decreased with increasing pressures to approximately 500 psig. Agglomerates broke up in the nozzle convergence to approximately 18 microns, independent of the pressure or nozzle entrance particle size. Particle breakup occurred in the exhaust plume. System limitations, sources of error and suggested improvements are discussed. Keywords: Particle sizing; Solid propellant rocket motors; Theses.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Dec 01, 1987
Accession Number
ADA193841

Entities

People

  • E. D. Youngborg

Organizations

  • Naval Postgraduate School

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Acquisition
  • Chemistry
  • Combustion
  • Combustors
  • Data Acquisition
  • Diffraction
  • Exhaust Nozzles
  • Exhaust Plumes
  • Light Scattering
  • Materials Laboratories
  • Materials Science
  • Measurement
  • Particle Size
  • Propellants
  • Rocket Engines
  • Scattering
  • Solid Propellants

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Aerosol Science/Aerosol Physics
  • Combustion and Flow Dynamics.
  • Surface Engineering/Surface Coating Technology.

Technology Areas

  • Directed Energy