Energetic Solid Rocket Nozzle / Throat Insulator Concept

Throat erosion of rocket nozzles results in lower expansion ratios and reduced specific impulse. The erosion can be minimized or completely eliminated by employing throat cooling to keep the throat material below the throat material critical temperature.Evaluation and fabrication of a cooled non-eroding will be performed using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and simplified thermal analysis in conjunction with carbon fiber reinforced metal composite materials. This capability has been developed byApplied Technology and Metal Matrix Cast Composites in prior efforts on jet vane thrust vector control and electronic thermal management. The ability to fabricate cooled composite materials offers the possibility of eliminating throat erosion andmaintaining rocket motor design values of specific impulse. Further refinement of this fabrication technology can increase the temperature limit of gas turbine components. The objective of the proposed effort is to use CFD and a transient lumped parameteranalysis and pressure infiltration casting to evaluate, design and fabricate a high temperature cooled throat.The development of new materials coupled with cost effective CFD and thermal analysis greatly increases the ability to optimize the design of hightemperature components. Applications are: internal spark ignition and diesel engines, gas turbine engines, solid and liquid rocket propulsion systems, etc. Increased temperature limits for all types of propulsion (rocket or jet engine) components has apositive impact on developing advanced propulsion systems and increasing the performance of these systems