Flame spread studies on additive manufactured porous propellant grains

Arun Chandru, R and Nikhil, B and Vishnu, N and Oommen, C and Raghunandan, BN and Sanal Kumar, VR (2017) Flame spread studies on additive manufactured porous propellant grains. In: 53rd AIAA/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference, 2017, 10 - 12 July 2017, Atlanta.

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Abstract

Additive manufacturing of solid rocket propellant grains attracted significantly in the recent past because it relaxes the geometric constraints imposed by traditional manufacturing techniques. Note that the 3D printed composite solid propellant grains with customizable port geometries and controllable porosity enable super burning rates and mission specific thrust profiles, and could redefine the scope and versatility of conventional composite solid propellants. In the first phase of this study complex composite propellant grain geometries are directly manufactured from the digital data, in a facile and reproducible manner. Note that the gas-penetrative burning of porous propellants under strong confinement is inherently self-accelerating. The mechanism of flame spread over a porous propellant is a complex process because it involves many physical processes. In the second phase of this paper numerical studies have been carried out to examine the flame spread mechanism over porous propellant with varying porosity above to the quenching distance. Numerical studies have been carried out using an unsteady, shear-stress transport k-? turbulence model. In the numerical study, a fully implicit finite volume scheme of the compressible, density based Navier-Stokes equations is employed. The flame spread being a transient phenomenon, the heat transfer coefficient gradually increases with time. Ignition of a larger propellant surface area produces more hot gases, and consequently the amount of heat transferred to the unburnt propellant surface by convection increases. Thus flame spread becomes accelerative in multi-dimensional, which is examined in this paper.

Item Type:	Conference Paper
Publication:	53rd AIAA/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference, 2017
Publisher:	American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Inc, AIAA
Additional Information:	The copyright for this article belongs to the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Inc, AIAA.
Keywords:	3D printers; Composite propellants; Geometry; Heat transfer; Manufacture; Navier Stokes equations; Porosity; Propellants; Propulsion; Rockets; Shear stress; Solid propellants; Turbulence models, Composite solid propellant; Controllable porosities; Finite volume schemes; Gas-penetrative burning; Geometric constraint; Shear-stress transport; Solid rocket propellant; Traditional manufacturing, Flame research
Department/Centre:	Division of Mechanical Sciences > Aerospace Engineering(Formerly Aeronautical Engineering)
Date Deposited:	21 Jul 2022 07:04
Last Modified:	21 Jul 2022 07:04
URI:	https://eprints.iisc.ac.in/id/eprint/74753

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