Fuel Chemistry And Combustion Distribution Effects On Rocket Engine Combustion Stability

Abstract

The goal of the project was to understand how changes in the rate of energy addition can be used to alter the combustion instability characteristics of liquid rocket engines. Fuels with increased energy, either due to higher heats of formation or energetic additives, presumably result in higher performance. This study seeks to understand how changes in combustion rate, due to fuel chemistry changes, might be used to develop high-performing, stable rocket engines. The overall objective of the project was to develop a fundamental understanding of how the spatial distribution of combustion and its temporal response to pressure oscillations depends on kinetic rates, flammability limits, and energy release density. The study combines basic drop combustion experiments, an in situ study using a spontaneously unstable model rocket combustor, and associated modeling of particles in combustion chamber gas flows.

Open PDF

Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 2013
Accession Number
ADA577052

Entities

People

  • Stephen D. Heister
  • Steven S. Son
  • William E Anderson

Organizations

  • Purdue University

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Weapons Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Boundary Layer
  • Burning Rate
  • Chemistry
  • Combustion
  • Combustion Products
  • Computational Fluid Dynamics
  • Computational Science
  • Convection
  • Heat Transfer
  • Laser Induced Fluorescence
  • Physics Laboratories
  • Pressure Measurement
  • Rocket Engines
  • Three Dimensional
  • Turbulent Mixing
  • Two Dimensional

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Ocean-Atmosphere Mesoscale Modeling, Data Assimilation, and Flux Boundary Layers
  • Rocket Propulsion.