Publicou 6 edições por ano
ISSN Imprimir: 2150-766X
ISSN On-line: 2150-7678
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PROPENSITY OF FLAME SPREADING INTO PROPELLANT SLITS UNDER SIMULATED ROCKET-MOTOR ENVIRONMENTS
RESUMO
This work was aimed to help identifying the possible cause of the Titan IV K-11 motor failure. A motor analog was used to evaluate the propensity of flame spreading into solid-propellant slits which simulated the knife-cuts resulting from the repair on one of the grain segments. Target test conditions were established to examine the validity of the test results. Experimental observations indicated that flame can indeed propagate into propellant slits even under compression, one of the test conditions controlled to simulate situations during the ignition transient of the Titan IV solid rocket motor. Based in part on the experimental evidence supported by this series of tests, it was concluded that flame spreading into the knife-cuts was the most probable scenario leading to the motor failure.