VARIABLE-ENERGY EJECT FOR MISSILE LAUNCH OVER A WIDE RANGE OF DEPTHS

UTILIZING EXISTING NUMERICAL SIMULATION TOOLS DEVELOPED BY THE PRINCIPAL INVESTIGATOR AND THE HOKENSON COMPANY, TWO ACTIVE CONTROL CONCEPTS APPLIED TO THE SUBMARINE MISSILE LAUNCH ASSIST GAS GENERATOR SYSTEM SHALL BE MODELED. THE OBJECTIVE IS TO QUANTIFY THE ABILITY OF THE TWO STRATEGIES TO CONTROL THE EJECTION FLOWRATE AND PRESSURE, THUS ADMITTING THE POSSIBILITY FOR LAUNCHING MISSILES OVER A WIDE RANGE OF DEPTHS. THE FIRST MECHANISM TO BE STUDIED IS THE INJECTION OF PRESSURE WAVES OF VARIOUS AMPLITUDES AND FREQUENCIES INTO THE COMBUSTION CHAMBER IN ORDER TO MODIFY THE SOLID PROPELLANT SURFACE REGRESSION RATE AND RESULTANT FLOWRATE, TEMPERATURE AND PRESSURE WITH A FIXED MOTOR GEOMETRY. THE SECOND MECHANISM INVOLES CONTROLLING THE WATER INJECTION CHARACTERISTICS INTO THE U-TUBE MIXER/COOLER DOWNSTREAM OF THE GAS GENERATOR. THE ANGLES (SWIRL AND STREAMWISE INCLINATION TO THE MAIN FLOW), FLOWRATE, VELOCITY AND INITIAL ATOMIZATION OF THE WATER INJECTION ON THE DOWNSTREAM PRESSURE AND TEMPERATURE SHALL BE COMPUTED FOR A GIVEN INLET GAS FLOWRATE, PRESSURE AND TEMPERATURE. THESE TWO SETS OF NUMERICAL SIMULATIONS SHALL BE CARRIED OUT WITH THE TIME-DEPENDENT AND MULTI-DIMENSIONAL EQUATIONS OF MOTION. THE RESULTS SHALL SERVE TO VALIDATE AND QUANTIFY THE HYPOTHESIS THAT VARIABLE-ENERGY EJECT SYSTEMS CAN BE DESIGNED WITH CURRENT TECHNOLOGY. IN ADDITION, THE PHASE I STUDIES SHALL SERVE TO LAY THE FOUNDATION FOR THE PHASE II EXPERIMENTAL VALIDATION WORK AS WELL AS A COMPREHENSIVE SET OF COMPUTATIONS IN WHICH BOTH CONTROL FEATURES ARE IMPOSED SIMULTANEOUSLY.