Prediction of Combustion Efficiency in a Hybrid Motor

SECA, Inc. with the assistance of AMROC, Inc. proposes to develop the methodology required to analytically predict the combustion efficiency of operational hybrid rocket motors from basic test data characteristic of the fuel employed. Such methodology is not currently available, and it is essential to accomplish scaling of test data, predict stability and fuel regression rates, and project systems response to varying oxidizer flowrates. These are precisely the requirements identified as needed in the Hybrid Propulsion System Technology subtopic. The fuel property data needed for characterization will be identified and provided by appropriate regression rate measurements. AMROC routinely measures fuel regression rates by using subscale test motors; a method will be developed to use these data directly to determine the internal ballistics of any hybrid motor using the same fuel. A computational fluid dynamics (CFD) analysis will be provided to accomplish the accurate coupling of the many phenomena which occur simultaneously in a hybrid. Measurements from a large scale hybrid motor test firing will be used as a final validation of the methodology.