Investigations on Internal Ballistic Characteristics of Pasty Propellant Rocket Engine

Abstract

Pasty rocket engines have broad application prospects in the aerospace field. To study the internal ballistic characteristics of the pasty propellant rocket engine, the burning surface change model of pasty propellant was built. The calculation program was developed to calculate the pressure evolution in the combustion chamber, and the experiment was carried out based on a pasty propellant rocket test system. The data calculated by the program are in good agreement with the experiment, the error of the initial pressure peak is only 4.02%, and the internal ballistic characteristics of the rocket engine at each stage were analyzed detailly. The effects of ignition delay time, transport pipeline structure, free volume of the combustion chamber, mass flow rate, and flow velocity of the pasty propellant on internal ballistic characteristics of the pasty propellant rocket engine are investigated. The results indicate that when the ignition delay time increases, the pressure rises faster and the initial pressure peak increases obviously. The transport pipe diameter changes from 11.3 mm to 7.4 mm, and the initial combustion time and residual propellant combustion time decreased by 41.3% and 36.0%. The reduction of the free volume of the combustion chamber can reduce the initial pressure peak and the time to reach the equilibrium pressure. The initial pressure spike and equilibrium pressure rise with the increase of the pasty propellant flow velocity. While the ignition transient decreased with the increase of the pasty propellant flow velocity. The internal ballistic properties can be improved by reducing the ignition delay time, the diameter of the transport pipeline, and the free volume of the combustion chamber, or by increasing the mass flow rate of the pasty propellant rocket engine.