The Blow-down Large Angle-of-attack Signatures Thrust Termination Toolkit (BLAST3)

In this SBIR, we develop a toolkit for computing time-dependent signatures for solid rocket motor thrust termination. The toolkit is composed of several modules describing the combustion chamber, near field, and far field flows, and outputs time-dependent spectral imagery. The fidelity of each module is user selectable between slower, higher fidelity simulations, and faster engineering approximations, and leverages several existing MDA plume simulation tools. The variation in flow composition and properties during thrust termination is highly complex, so the Phase I work features development of an engineering approximation of the flow leaving the combustion chamber during thrust termination. In Phase I, the model is used to initialize a continuum CFD code to compute the near-field expansion, and a DSMC code to compute the rarefied portion of the gas plume. Results are rendered for signatures and compared against data.