Multisized Inert Particle Loading for Solid Rocket Axial Combustion Instability Suppression

Abstract

In the present investigation, various factors and trends, related to the usage of two or more sets of inert particles comprised of the same material (nominally aluminum) but at different diameters for the suppression of axial shock wave development, are numerically predicted for a composite-propellant cylindrical-grain solid rocket motor. The limit pressure wave magnitudes at a later reference time in a given pulsed firing simulation run are collected for a series of runs at different particle sizes and loading distributions and mapped onto corresponding attenuation trend charts. The inert particles’ presence in the central core flow is demonstrated to be an effective means of instability symptom suppression, in correlating with past experimental successes in the usage of particles. However, the predicted results of this study suggest that one needs to be careful when selecting more than one size of particle for a given motor application.