Numerical Study on Response Characteristics of Solid Rocket Pintle Motor

Abstract

Pintle technology is currently a versatile technology used in a solid rocket motor (SRM) to control the desired thrust by changing the nozzle throat area, while effectively controlling the chamber pressure at the same time. The sudden movement of the pintle can induce rapid changes in the flow field and the occurrence of pressure oscillations inside the combustion chamber. The analysis of such rapid changes is essential to design an efficient controllable pintle rocket motor for a better thrust regulation. Two-dimensional axisymmetric models with mesh generation and required boundary condition were designed to analyze the effects of three different pintle head shape models in SRM thrust regulation effect. Dynamic mesh method was used with specific velocity for moving plug/pintle in the numerical analysis of SRM thrust regulation. The effects of different pintle head models on the flow field, combustion chamber pressure, mass-flow rate, thrust and Mach number were investigated. According to the analysis of total pressure response time, the simulation data revealed that circular pintle head model responded faster among three different models. According to the thrust effect, parabolic pintle has the maximum value of thrust and the greatest total pressure recovery coefficient among all pintle head models.