MAE 4262: ROCKETS AND MISSION ANALYSIS

Overview of Solid Propellant Rockets

Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering Department Florida Institute of Technology

SOLID PROPELLANT ROCKETS

Solid fuel rockets rely on controlled explosion of a mixture of substances Nearly a homogeneous material that is burned Similar to gunpowder ~ (75% potassium nitrate, 10% carbon, and 15% sulfur) Example: STS Solid Rocket Boosters: Contain ammonium perchlorate as an oxidizer and aluminum as a fuel Rest of mixture devoted to bonding two reactants Once a solid rocket is ignited, can not be turned off

GRAIN DESIGNS

Solid & hybrid propellant rockets

Solid propellant rocket motors (SRM) are the first type of the rocket motors in history. Initially they were a barrels (made from paper or, later, steel) with gunpowder. Nowadays SRMs have evolved into quite sophisticated and effective rocket engines. That happened thanks to enormous progress in chemistry and physics of combustion, to development of new effective solid propellants and to technological advances. The main advantages of SRM: high thrust; high reliability and low cost; simple to change thrust profile; simple to handle and to hold; simple to develop and to scale. However, they also have certain disadvantages: relatively low specific impulse (compared to liquid propellants); relatively short working time; relatively low thrust-to-weight ratio; difficult to control inflight; need advanced technology to produce effective engines.

HYBRID ROCKETS
Solid Fuel, Liquid Oxidizer Example

Part 1

LIQUID ROCKET ENGINES

LIQUID ROCKET ENGINE TYPES

SOLID GRAIN

NUCLEAR THERMAL

FUEL

NUCLEAR REACTOR

LIQUID PROPELLANTS
MONOPROPELLANTS :
Hydrazine,
Hydrogen peroxyde

BIPROPELLANTS :
FUELS : OXIDIZERS : Liquid oxygen,

Kerosine, ethanol
Liquid hydrogen,

N2O4,

UDMH, MMH, Hydrazine Hydrogen peroxyde

HYBRID PROPELLANTS
liquid propellant : oxidizer - solid propellant : fuel (solid oxidizers are problematic and lower performing than liquid oxidizers) oxidizers : gaseous or liquid oxygen nitrous oxide. fuels : polymers (e.g.polyethylene), cross-linked rubber (e.g.HTPB), liquefying fuels (e.g. paraffin).

Solid fuels (HTPB or paraffin) allow for the incorporation of highenergy fuel additives (e.g.aluminium).

CHEMICAL REACTIONS
BIPROPELLANTS

Dimethylhydrazine (UDMH) : H2N N (CH3)2 (l)+ 2 N2O4 (l) - > 3 N2 (g) + 4 H2O (g) + 2 CO2 (g) Hydrazine hydrate (N2H4,H2O) : 2 (N2H4,H2O) (l) + N2O4 (l) - > 3 N2 (g) + 6 H2O (g) Monomethylhydrazine (MMH) : 4 H2N NHCH3 (l) + 5 N2O4 (l) - > 9 N2 (g) + 12 H2O (g) + 4 CO2 (g) Kerosene (CH2 is the approximate formula ) with hydrogen peroxide : CH2 + 3H2O2 CO2 + 4H2O Kerosene and liquid oxygen (LOX) CH2 + 1.5O2 CO2 + H2O Hydrogen and oxygen (liquids) : 2 H2 (g)+ O2 (g) - > 2 H2O (g) MONOPROPELLANTS Hydrogen peroxyde (H2O2) H2O2 (l) - > H2O (l) + 1/2 O2 (g) Hydrazine (N2H4) N2H4 (l) - > N2 (g) + 2 H2 (g)

Hybrid rocket

 A hybrid rocket is a rocket with a rocket motor which uses propellants in two different states of matter - one solid and the other either gas or liquid
Common oxidizers include gaseous or liquid oxygen or nitrous oxide.

Common fuels include polymers such as polyethylene, cross-linked rubber such as HTPB or liquefying fuels such as paraffin wax.

Advantages compared with solid rockets

Less explosion hazard - Propellant grain more tolerant of processing errors such as cracks. More controllable - Start/stop/restart and throttling are all achievable with appropriate oxidize control Safe and non-toxic oxidizers such as liquid oxygen and nitrous oxide can be used Can be transported to site in a benign form and loaded with oxidizer remotely immediately before launch, improving safety.

Advantages compared with bipropellant liquid rockets

Mechanically simpler - requires only a single liquid propellant resulting in less plumbing, fewer valves, and simpler operations. Denser fuels - fuels in the solid phase generally have higher density than those in the liquid phase, reducing overall system volume. Metal additives - reactive metals such as aluminum, magnesium, lithium or beryllium can be easily included in the fuel grain increasing specific impulse, density specific impulse, or both.

Disadvantages of hybrid rockets

Oxidizer-to-fuel ratio shift ("O/F shift") - with a constant oxidizer flowrate, the ratio of fuel production rate to oxidizer flow rate will change as a grain regresses. This leads to off-peak operation from a chemical performance point of view. Low regression-rate (rate at which the solid phase recedes) fuels often drive multi-port fuel grains. Multi-port fuel grains have poor volumetric efficiency and, often, structural deficiencies. High regression-rate liquefying fuels developed in the late 1990s offer a potential solution to this problem.[4] Compared with Liquid based propulsion, re-fuelling a partially or totally depleted hybrid rocket would present significant challenges, as the solid propellant cannot simply be pumped into a fuel tank. This may or may not be an issue, depending upon how the rocket is planned to be used.

Hybrid rocket cycle

Pros : - Higher performance than solids - Lower complexity than liquids

Cons : - Lower performance than liquids - Higher complexity than solids

Solar-heated steam rocket