%0 Journal Article %A Michaels, Dan %A Gany, Alon %D 2013 %I Begell House %K interior ballistics model; short action motor; motor discharging weight; impulse augmentation %N 4 %P 275-306 %R 10.1615/IntJEnergeticMaterialsChemProp.2013005392 %T MODELING OF A SHORT ACTION MOTOR DISCHARGING A WEIGHT %U https://www.dl.begellhouse.com/journals/17bbb47e377ce023,666ac2715cb41467,12bd76920ae90370.html %V 12 %X This paper investigates the interior ballistics of a unique concept for short action motors, based on a rocket-type combustion chamber discharging a weight through an exhaust tube. Depending on the overall system requirements, different kinds of propellant and weight may be considered. In the current study a system comprising a granular solid propellant and a solid weight is considered in order to capture the basic mechanisms of the impulse augmentation. A simplified lumped parameters model and a detailed two-phase flow model have been formulated and the fundamental characteristics of the propulsion system have been computed and analyzed. The study reveals that for certain system parameters with a given propellant mass the total impulse as well as the specific impulse may be significantly larger than those generated by a conventional rocket motor. The theoretical parametric investigation provides a good understanding on how different system parameters influence the in-terior ballistics processes, and can provide guidelines to the design of thrusters. Such short action motors may be beneficial for spacecraft and missile station keeping and trajectory correction, applying mini-thrusters of this kind, as well as for separating large space bodies such as missiles/launcher stages, satellites, etc. %8 2013-09-26