Advanced Rocket Propulsion Technologies

A modeling and experimental program is proposed with the goal of reducing the mean size of metal oxide droplets in the exhaust of solid propellant rocket motors (SRMs). The proposed effort looks at all aspects of metal combustion and discrete phase dynamics which occur in SRMs and offers approaches which have the potential to reduce the mean droplet size in the flowfield which would subsequently increase the delivered performance of these motors. The payoff in terms of payload or range is tremendous. A 1% increase in Isp means approximately a 4% increase in payload. The rule of thumb used for most motors is that the two-phase flow loss is 1% in Isp per micron of droplet diameter, i.e. "1% per micron". Thus any reduction in the mean drop size has large potential payback.