Combustion and propulsive characteristics of potential hybrid rocket propellant

Abstract

Presently, the advancements in the field of rockets and rocket propulsion has been done to such an extent where the mission success rate is surely more than its failure. This has also led to a need for much better efficient materials (propellants) that form a major part of the rockets. The project deals with the combustion and the propulsion characteristics of the rockets. In combustion part, the experiments are conducted on normal paraffin wax candle, coated with different energetic materials in order to calculate the burn rate with the help of videography. This addition of energetic materials enhances the regression rate of candle. The propulsive characteristics, like the specific impulse and characteristic velocity, are studied through simulations carried on the NASA-CEA software in which a base composite propellant (AP/HTPB/Al) is present along with highly energetic materials. The energetic materials considered here are either fuel, binder or oxidiser which helps us to study the variance in the specific impulse and the characteristic velocity. The key parameters here are pressure, temperature, the oxidiser to fuel ratio and the composition of the material. One of the novelties of this study is to create a relation between the combustive and propulsive characteristics as there is not existing correlation between them. Other importance of this study is the concept of Hybridisation put forth to simplify the addition of material in the propellant. This concept has been studied extensively come up with a better hybrid propellant that can be used to improve the efficiency of the rocket.