Published 6 issues per year
ISSN Print: 2150-766X
ISSN Online: 2150-7678
Indexed in
EXPERIMENTAL STUDY OF ALUMINIZED PROPELLANT COMBUSTION WITH VISIBLE STRAND BURNER
ABSTRACT
Slag formation and the accumulation found in aluminized solid propellant combustion occasionally cause the reduction of specific impulse and the rise of erosion rate at the nozzle and the insulation1−4 To improve reliability and performance of the solid rocket, the prediction of slag formation and the reduction of slag are very important requirements. To estimate the mechanism of the formation of Al2O3 slag, the information of Al droplet size distribution and combustion process in the flame are required as the first step. We observed the formation of the Al droplets at high pressure conditions with the CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) camera and the pockets of propellant cut with the microtome clearly. The diameters of the Al droplets in the flame near the propellant surface decreased with increasing pressure, and the sizes of the agglomerated Al droplets on the burning propellant surface were affected by pressure. The Al droplets in the pockets were smaller than that observed during the propellant combustion. We estimated that a diameter averaged Al droplet in the flame consisted of the Al droplets in 96 pockets at 1 MPa and the Al droplets in 50 pockets at 8 MPa.