Effects of Energetic Additives on Combustion Dynamics

Abstract

Energetic additives offer the possibility of increased performance of rocket engines. For hydrocarbon-fueled rocket engines, however, increased performance tends to be associated with increased severity of combustion instability. An exploration of the role of fuel and flame chemistry on combustion instabilities in liquid rocket engines is presented, with the goal of determining whether changes in the fuel energy content and flame speed can improve combustion stability. A limited set of experiments, analyses, and computations were conducted. In summary, it was determined that JP-8 and ethanol drops loaded with nano-Al additives burned differently. An exploratory computational study using Large Eddy Simulation indicated that faster-burning fuels actually increased stability. Experiments in a model rocket combustor indicated that there are coupled effects including injector flow dynamics and chemistry.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Apr 19, 2010
Accession Number
ADA524505

Entities

People

  • S. Son
  • William Anderson

Organizations

  • Purdue University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Additives (Chemicals)
  • Burning Rate
  • Chemistry
  • Combustion
  • Combustion Stability
  • Combustors
  • Department Of Defense
  • Dynamics
  • Energetic Materials
  • Engines
  • Fluid Dynamics
  • Fluid Mechanics
  • Hydrocarbons
  • Ignition
  • Injectors
  • Large Eddy Simulation
  • Rocket Engines

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD)
  • Rocket Propulsion.