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Staging and Control of Rockets

and Missiles:
Posted on March 4, 2014

Multi staging of Rockets:

A multistage (or multistage) rocket is a rocket that uses two or more stages, each of which
contains its own engines and propellant. A tandem or serial stage is mounted on top of
another stage; a parallel stage is attached alongside another stage. The result is effectively
two or more rockets stacked on top of or attached next to each other. Taken together these
are sometimes called a launch vehicle. Two stage rockets are quite common, but rockets with
as many as five separate stages have been successfully launched. By jettisoning stages when
they run out of propellant, the mass of the remaining rocket is decreased. This staging allows
the thrust of the remaining stages to more easily accelerate the rocket to its final speed and
height.

In serial or tandem staging schemes, the first stage is at the bottom and is usually the largest,
the second stage and subsequent upper stages are above it, usually decreasing in size. In
parallel staging schemes solid or liquid rocket boosters are used to assist with liftoff. These
are sometimes referred to as stage 0. In the typical case, the first stage and booster engines
fire to propel the entire rocket upwards. When the boosters run out of fuel, they are detached
from the rest of the rocket (usually with some kind of small explosive charge) and fall away.
The first stage then burns to completion and falls off. This leaves a smaller rocket, with the
second stage on the bottom, which then fires. Known in rocketry circles as staging, this
process is repeated until the final stages motor burns to completion.

In some cases with serial staging, the upper stage ignites before the separation the interstate
ring is designed with this in mind, and the thrust is used to help positively separate the two
vehicles.

The Taurus rocket is unusual in that its stage 1 ignites in flight; this designation is used
because its upper three stages are identical to those of the Pegasus rocket, with the stage 0
booster replacing the Pegasus carrier aircraft.

Advantages:

The main reason for multistage rockets and boosters is that once the fuel is exhausted, the
space and structure which contained it and the motors themselves are useless and only add
weight to the vehicle which slows down its future acceleration. By dropping the stages which
are no longer useful, the rocket lightens itself. The thrust of future stages is able to provide
more acceleration than if the earlier stage were still attached, or a single, large rocket would
be capable of. When a stage drops off, the rest of the rocket is still traveling near the speed
that the whole assembly reached at burnout time. This means that it needs less total fuel to
reach a given velocity and/or altitude.

A further advantage is that each stage can use a different type of rocket motor each tuned for
its particular operating conditions. Thus the lower stage motors are designed for use at
atmospheric pressure, while the upper stages can use motors suited to near vacuum
conditions. Lower stages tend to require more structure than upper as they need to bear their
own weight plus that of the stages above them, optimizing the structure of each stage
decreases the weight of the total vehicle and provides further advantage.

Disadvantage:

On the downside, staging requires the vehicle to lift motors which are not being used until
later, as well as making the entire rocket more complex and harder to build. In addition, each
staging event is a significant point of failure during a launch, with the possibility of separation
failure, ignition failure, and stage collision. Nevertheless the savings are so great that every
rocket ever used to deliver a payload into orbit has had staging of some sort.

In more recent times the usefulness of the technique has come into question due to
developments in technology. In the case of the Space Shuttle the costs of space launches
appear to be mostly composed of the operational costs of the people involved, as opposed to
fuel or equipment. Reducing these costs appears to be the best way to lower the overall
launch costs. New technology that is mainly in the theoretical and developmental stages is
being looked at to lower the costs of launch vehicles. More information can be found on single
stage to orbit designs that do not have separate stages.

Stage Separation Dynamics:

A missile stage separation event occurs when the booster motor separates from the upper
stage vehicle components. Active stage separation involves the firing of the upper stage motor
to initiate separation, and this flight event can be effectively modeled using CFD. In some
cases, stage separation can be treated using a quasisteady assumption to decouple the
relative motion of the two bodies from the fluid dynamics (this is valid if the fluid dynamic time
scale is short compared to the motion of the bodies). While this approach can produce a large
amount of CFD data for use in Monte Carlo flight simulations, it fails to capture the dynamics
of the separation event. The Loci/CHEM team has developed modules to simulate the full six
degrees of freedom (6 DOF) relative motion of the separating bodies. The methodology
couples the aerodynamics and propulsion to the integrated body motion along the flight
trajectory. Overset unstructured grids with advanced hole cutting and interpolation procedures
provide a robust tool that can be used for the analysis of stage and store separation systems,
launch simulations, or other types of multiple bodies in relative motion.

Rocket Thrust Vector Control Methods:

In addition to providing a propulsive force to a flying vehicle, a rocket propulsion system can
provide moments to rotate the flying vehicle and thus provide control of the vehicles attitude
and flight path. By controlling the direction of the thrust vectors through the mechanisms
described later in the chapter, it is possible to control a vehicles pitch, yaw, and roll motions.

All chemical propulsion systems can be provided with one of several types of thrust vector
control (TVC) mechanisms. Some of these apply either to solid, hybrid, or to liquid propellant
rocket propulsion systems, but most are specific to only one of these propulsion categories.
We will describe two types of thrust vector control concept: (1) for an engine or a motor with a
single nozzle; and

(2) For those that have two or more nozzles.

Thrust vector control is effective only while the propulsion system is operating and creating an
exhaust jet. For the flight period, when a rocket propulsion system is not firing and therefore
its TVC is inoperative, a separate mechanism needs to be provided to the flying vehicle for
achieving control over its attitude or flight path.

Aerodynamic fins (fixed and movable) continue to be very effective for controlling vehicle flight
within the earths atmosphere, and almost all weather rockets, antiaircraft missiles, and airto
surface missiles use them. Even though aerodynamic control surfaces provide some additional
drag, their effectiveness in terms of vehicle weight, turning moment, and actuating power
consumption is difficult to surpass with any other flight control method. Vehicle flight control
can also be achieved by a separate attitude control propulsion system as described in
Sections 4.6, 6.8, and 11.3. Here six or more small liquid propellant thrusters (with a separate
feed system and a separate control) provide small moments to the vehicle in flight during,
before, or after the operation of

The main rocket propulsion system.

The reasons for TVC are: (1) to willfully change a flight path or trajectory

(e.g., changing the direction of the flight path of a targetseeking missile); (2) to rotate the
vehicle or change its attitude during powered flight; (3) to correct for deviation from the
intended trajectory or the attitude during powered flight; or

(4) To correct for thrust misalignment of a fixed nozzle in the main propulsion system during
its operation, when the main thrust vector misses the vehicles center of gravity.
Pitch moments are those that raise or lower the nose of a vehicle; yaw moments turn the nose
sideways; and roll moments are applied about the main axis of the flying vehicle (Fig. 161).
Usually, the thrust vector of the main rocket nozzle is in the direction of the vehicle axis and
goes through the vehicles center of gravity. Thus it is possible to obtain pitch and yaw control
moments by the simple deflection of the main rocket thrust vector; however, roll control
usually requires the use of two or more rotary vanes or two or more separately hinged
propulsion system nozzles. Figure 162 explains the pitch moment obtained by a hinged thrust
chamber or nozzle. The side force and the pitch moment vary as the sine of the effective angle
of thrust vector deflection.

TVC MECHANISMS WITH A SINGLE NOZZLE

Many different mechanisms have been used successfully. Several are illustrated in Refs. 161
and 162. They can be classified into four categories:

1. Mechanical deflection of the nozzle or thrust chamber.

2. Insertion of heatresistant movable bodies into the exhaust jet; these experience
aerodynamic forces and cause a deflection of a part of the exhaust gas flow.

3. Injection of fluid into the side of the diverging nozzle section, causing an asymmetrical
distortion of the supersonic exhaust flow.
4. Separate thrustproducing devices that are not part of the main flow through the nozzle.

Each category is described briefly below and in Table 161, where the four categories are
separated by horizontal lines. Figure 163 illustrates several TVC mechanisms. All of the TVC
schemes shown here have been used in production vehicles.

In the hinge or gimbal scheme (a hinge permits rotation about one axis only, whereas a gimbal
is essentially a universal joint), the whole engine is pivoted on a bearing and thus the thrust
vector is rotated. For small angles this scheme has negligible losses in specific impulse and is
used in many vehicles. It requires a flexible set of propellant piping (bellows) to allow the
propellant to flow from the tanks of the vehicle to the movable engine. The Space Shuttle (Fig.
113) has two gimballed orbit maneuver engines, and three gimballed main engines.

Figures 61, 63, and 819 show gimballed engines. Some Soviet launch vehicles use multiple
thrusters and hinges, while many U.S. vehicles use gimbals.

Jet vanes are pairs of heatresistant, aerodynamic wingshaped surfaces submerged in the
exhaust jet of a fixed rocket nozzle. They were first used about 55 years ago. They cause extra
drag (2 to 5% less is; drag increases with larger vane deflections) and erosion of the vane
material. Graphite jet vanes were used in the German V2 missile in World War II and in the
Scud missiles fired by Iraq in 1991. The advantage of having roll control with a single nozzle
often outweighs the performance penalties.

Small auxiliary thrust chambers were used in the Thor and early version of Atlas missiles. They
provide roll control while the principal rocket engine operates. They are fed from the same
feed system as the main rocket engine. This scheme is still used on some Russian booster
rocket vehicles.

The injection of secondary fluid through the wall of the nozzle into the main gas stream has
the effect of forming oblique shocks in the nozzle diverging
L, used with liquid propellant engines; S, used with solid propellant motors.
FIGURE 163. Simple schematic diagrams of eight different TVC mechanisms. Actuators and
structural details are not shown. The letter L means it is used with liquid propellant rocket
engines and S means it is used with solid propellant motors.

Section, thus causing an unsymmetrical distribution of the main gas flow, which produces a
side force. The secondary fluid can be stored liquid or gas from a separate hot gas generator
(the gas would then still be sufficiently cool to be piped), a direct bleed from the chamber, or
the injection of a catalyzed monopropellant.
When the deflections are small, this is a lowloss scheme, but for large moments (large side
forces) the amount of secondary fluid becomes excessive. This scheme has found application
in a few large solid propellant rockets, such as Titan IIIC and one version of Minuteman.

Of all the mechanical deflection types, the movable nozzles are the most efficient. They do not
significantly reduce the thrust or the specific impulse and are weightcompetitive with the other
mechanical types. The flexible nozzle, shown in Figs. 163 and 164, is a common type of
TVC used with solid propellant motors. The molded, multilayer bearing pack acts as a seal, a
load transfers bearing, and a viscoelastic flexure. It uses the deformation of a stacked set of
doubly curved elastomeric (rubbery) layers between spherical metal sheets to carry the loads
and allow an angular deflection of the nozzle axis. The flexible seal nozzle has been used in
launch vehicles and large strategic missiles, where the environmental temperature extremes
are modest. At low temperature the elastomer becomes stiff and the actuation torques
increase substantially, requiring a much larger actuation system. Figure 1 65 describes a
different type of flexible nozzle. It uses a movable joint with a toroidal hydraulic bag to transfer
loads. There are double seals to prevent leaks of hot gas and various insulators to keep the
structure below 200F or 93C.

FIGURE 164. Two methods of using flexible nozzle bearings with different locations for the
center of rotation. The bearing support ring is made of metal or plastic sheet shims formed
into rings with spherical contours (white) bonded together by layers of molded elastomer or
rubber (black stripes). Although only five elastomeric layers are shown for clarity, many flexible
bearings have 10 to 20 layers.
FIGURE 165. Simplified cross section of an upperstage solid propellant rocket motor (IUS)
using an insulated carbonfiber/carbonmatrix nozzle, an insulated Kevlar filament wound
case, a pyrogen igniter, forward and aft stressrelieving boots, a fluidfilled bearing, and an
elastomeric seal assembly in the nozzle to allow 4 of thrust vector deflection. This motor
has a loaded weight of 22,874 lbf, a propellant with hydroxyl terminated polybutadiene binder,
a weight of 21,400 lbf, a burnout weight of 1360 lbf, a motor mass fraction of 0.941, a nozzle
throat diameter of 6.48 in., and a nozzle exit area ratio of 63.8. The motor burns 146 sec at an
average pressure of 651 psi (886 psi maximum) and an average thrust of 44,000 lbf (60,200
lbf maximum), with an effective altitude specific impulse of 295 sec. Top drawing is cross
section of motor; bottom drawing is enlarged cross section of nozzle package assembly.