AIAA Propulsion and Energy Forum 10.2514/6.2018-4526.

c1
July 9-11, 2018, Cincinnati, Ohio
2018 Joint Propulsion Conference

Title Demonstration of 2,500 N-class H2O2/HDPE Hybrid Rocket for Lab-scale Sounding Rocket
Author(s) Yongtae Yun(4); Huh Jeongmoo(2); Youngil Kim(1); Shinjae Kang(3); Seonuk Heo(4); Sejin
Kwon(4)
Author 1. Tmax OS, Seongnam-si, Korea (the Republic of). 2. Queen Mary University of London,
Affiliation(s) London, United Kingdom. 3. Korea Aerospace Research Institute (KARI), Daejeon, Korea (the
Republic of). 4. Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology, Daejeon, Korea (the
Republic of).

The correction parts are marked in red.

Correction Notice

A. Injector and catalytic reactor

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A showerhead type injector was selected to uniformly inject the oxidizer into the catalytic reactor. Eqs.
(2) and (3) were used to calculate the oxidizer mass flow rate and to design the injector 1. In eq. (2), ṁ is a
total mass flow rate, F is a thrust, γ is the nozzle correction factor, CF is the thrust coefficient, C ∗ is the
characteristic velocity of the propellant, and ηC∗ is the characteristic velocity efficiency. In eq. (3), ṁox is the
oxidizer mass flow rate, Cd is the discharge coefficient, A is the area of the orifice hole, ρox is the oxidizer
density, and ∆P is the pressure drop across the orifice. The value of CdA was 0.49× 10−5m2 and it was gained
from the water flow test. The following procedure was used to design the injector. Using the NASA Chemical
Equilibrium and Applications (CEA) code, the characteristic velocity, specific impulse, and thrust coefficient
were calculated at the combustion chamber pressure of 20 bar and the O/F of 7.515. The nozzle angle
correction factor was calculated when the nozzle cone divergence half angle was 15˚. The characteristic
velocity efficiency was assumed to be 100 %. A chamber pressure drop of 10 % of the design value was
decided on and the discharge coefficient was assumed to be in the range of 0.7 to 0.8. The value of CdA was
0.49× 10−5m2 and it was gained from the water flow test.
It is important to design the catalytic reactor so that H2O2 can sufficiently decompose. The catalyst
capacity, which is the decomposition ability of the catalytic reactor, was considered for the design of the
catalytic reactor. The catalyst capacity was set 1.0 g/s-cm3; a catalyst with proven reactivity,
MnO2/PbO/Al2O3, was employed based on previous experiments using H2O2 monopropellant thruster16-18.
Furthermore, the size of the catalytic reactor was increased by a factor of ten. For the catalyst of 10-16 mesh
size used in the 250 N class H2O2/HDPE hybrid rocket, the pressure drop inside the catalytic reactor will
increase and cause damage to the catalyst and catalytic reactor. Therefore, the dual catalytic reactor was
applied to reduce pressure drop of the catalytic reactor resulting from scale-up19. 10-16 mesh and pellet size
MnO2/PbO/Al2O3 catalyst were used.
𝐹
𝑚̇ = 𝐶 ∙𝛾∙𝐶 ∗ ∙η ∗ (2)
𝐹 𝐶

𝑚̇𝑜𝑥 = 𝐶𝑑 ∙ 𝐴 ∙ √2 ∙ 𝜌𝑜𝑥 ∙ ∆𝑃 (3)

Copyright © 2018 by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics, Inc. All rights reserved.
 B. Solid fuel design
In general, solid fuels of hybrid rocket are studied using hydroxyl terminated polybutadiene (HTPB),
HDPE, and paraffin; performance evaluation studies including additives for solid fuel have been carried out
steadily20, 21. HTPB is the most commonly used solid fuel in hybrid rocket but it is hard in South Korea to
purchase or produce solid fuels including additives. Paraffin has a low ignition point and a high regression
rate10. However, in the case of H2O2/paraffin hybrid rocket, it is confirmed that the combustion tests are
difficult due to melting of the paraffin22. HDPE is a fuel that can be easily purchased within the country, is
easy to manufacture, and has high mechanical properties. Moreover, it is possible to ignite with the
decomposed gas by the catalyst23. Therefore, HDPE was selected for the 2,500 N class H2O2/HDPE hybrid
rocket. Eq. (4) is the governing equation for the decomposition process of hydrogen peroxide.

2𝐻2 𝑂2 → 𝐻2 O + 𝑂2 + Heat (4)

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One of the disadvantages of hybrid rockets is the low regression rate. Many groups are conducting research
regarding improvement of regression rate 24-27. One method to increase the regression rate is to use of the
solid fuel with high regression rate, apply a swirl injector, and use multi-port solid fuel. In reality, it is difficult
to purchase HTPB and to manufacture solid fuel containing additives; also, there is a limitation to using a
swirl injector in a hydrogen peroxide hybrid rocket due to the catalytic ignition system. Therefore, a multi-
port solid fuel was designed to increase the regression rate and to reduce the length of the combustion chamber
and the weight of solid fuel. The performance factor of hybrid rocket, such as oxidizer mass flux, O/F,
regression rate, combustion chamber pressure, specific impulse, and characteristic velocity are influenced by
the port diameter and number of ports. Therefore, the port diameter and number of ports are values required
to minimize the performance degradation of the hybrid rocket. Various shapes exist in the multi-port solid
fuels28, 29, but a cylindrical port was made in consideration of cost and the manufacturing process30. Eq. (5)
and the fuel regression rate equation of 250 N class H2O2/HDPE hybrid rocket were employed to design the
solid fuel16. Here, 𝐻𝑚 is the length of multi-port solid fuel, 𝑚̇𝑓 is a solid fuel mass flow rate, N is the number
of port, 𝑅𝑖 is the radius of port, 𝜌𝑓 is the density of HDPE which is 954 kg/m3, and 𝑟̇𝑑 is derived regression
rate from 250 N H2O2/HDPE hybrid rocket. The multi-port solid fuel length was 400 mm; the number of port
was 9; and the port diameter was set at 15 mm.

Figure 1. Designed solid fuel (HDPE)

𝑓𝑚̇ /𝑁
𝐻𝑚 = 2𝑅 𝜋𝜌 (5)
𝑖 𝑓 𝑟̇ 𝑑
 IV. Experimental Apparatus and measurement method

Index
Ball valve
H2O2
GN 2
Tank Check valve

Latch valve

Pressure gage

Cavitating venturi
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Solenoid valve
Propellant
Emergency
Gas line
drain

Hybrid
rocket

Figure 4. Schematic of blow-down system

The blow-down system has the advantage of being able to predict the performance of the rocket in actual
operating conditions and to simplify the configuration of the system. The tank applied to the system was a
9.2 L carbon composite tank (INOCOM, Korea). The main oxidizer valve is a latch valve (Space Solution,
Korea), which can be controlled using 24 V. A check valve was used for nitrogen gas pressurization and a
solenoid valve (Syntek Korea, Korea) was used for emergency oxidizer discharge. In addition, a ball valve
was installed before a latch valve in order to allow the oxidizer supply and the pressurization to proceed
sequentially. Pressure transducers (SENSYS, Korea) with a maximum measurement pressure of 70 bar and
50 bar and measurement accuracy of ± 0.15 % and ± 0.04 % were used for pressure measurement in the
feeding line, catalytic reactor, and chamber. K-type thermocouples (Omega, U.S.A.) with measurement
accuracy of ± 0.19 % were used in the catalytic reactor. Pressure and temperature data were acquired through
a data acquisition (DAQ) (National Instruments, U.S.A.). The sampling rate of pressure and temperature were
1000 Hz and 80 Hz, respectively. A load cell (CM 500 kgf) (Dacell, Korea) with accuracy of ± 0.1 % was
used for thrust measurement. The thrust correction factor was calculated using two load cells for actual thrust
calculation. Because it is difficult to measure the solid fuel regression rate during hot-fire test, the regression
rate was estimated using the time-space averaging method10. Calculation of the solid fuel diameter before and
after hot-fire test was performed using Eqs. (7) and (8). The solid fuel regression rate and oxidizer mass flux
were calculated using Eqs. (9) and (10)10. Here, 𝐷𝑖 is the solid fuel diameter before a hot-fire test, 𝐷𝑓 is the
solid fuel diameter after a hot-fire test, 𝐷𝑜 is the average outside diameter of solid fuel measured at 6 points,
𝑚𝑖 is the mass of solid fuel before hot-fire test, 𝑚𝑜 is the mass of solid fuel after hot-fire test, 𝐺𝑜 is the
oxidizer mass flux, 𝑡𝑏 is the burn time.
 𝑚𝑖
𝐷𝑖 = √𝐷𝑜2 − 4 𝜋𝜌 (7)
𝑓 𝐻𝑚

𝑚𝑓
𝐷𝑓 = √𝐷𝑜2 − 4 𝜋𝜌 (8)
𝑓 𝐻𝑚

16𝑚̇𝑜𝑥
𝐺𝑜 = 𝜋(𝐷𝑓 +𝐷𝑖 )2
(9)

𝐷𝑓 −𝐷𝑖
𝑟̇ = 2𝑡𝑏
(10)

V. Hot-fire test and discussion

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Tank feeding pressure was determined through water flow test before a hot-fire test. When the port
merging of the solid fuel occurs, the surface area of the combustion material changes suddenly, and rocket
performance change occurs rapidly. Therefore, the amount of oxidizer and the burn time were determined
considering the performance degradation due to port merging of solid fuel. Figure 5 and 6 show the image of
solid fuel after hot-fire test and the hot-fire test. The ports did not merge during the burn time. The maximum
temperature of the catalytic reactor was 770℃, which means that the 90 wt.% hydrogen peroxide was
sufficiently decomposed. The pressure drop inside the catalytic reactor was reduced by the dual catalytic
reactor. A characteristic velocity efficiency of more than 95 % was confirmed at the combustion start point
and the O/F close to the design value was confirmed in hot-fire test. The solid fuel regression rate was 4.87
mm/s; the pressure drop of the catalytic reactor was 3.6 bar; and the ignition delay was 0.48 sec. Table 2
shows the result of hot-fire test using 2,500 N class H2O2/HDPE hybrid rocket. Figure 7 and 8 show the
pressure graph including values of the tank inlet, the inlet and outlet of the cavitating venturi tube, the injector
inlet, the catalytic reactor, and the combustion chamber, and the thrust curve. For the thrust measurement,
the actual thrust was calculated using thrust coefficient factor, which indicates the resistance caused by
vertical sliding rail, the tank, the feeding line and sensor, and the weight of the hybrid rocket. The thrust was
2313 N at the combustion start point, which is more than 90 % of the design thrust. Considering the
temperature measured in the catalytic reactor, the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide was considered to be
almost complete. The pressure drop inside the catalytic reactor was reduced by the dual catalytic reactor.
High characteristics velocity efficiency result was obtained at the combustion start point, but combustion
chamber pressure and thrust values lower than the design value were confirmed. Therefore, considering
measured thrust and combustion chamber pressure, additional experiments and verification of multi-port solid
fuels that designed using the regression rate equation of the 250 N class H2O2/HDPE hybrid rocket are
required. Generally, in lab-scale sounding rocket, the thrust to weight ratio is very important. For a stable
launch, it is necessary for the rocket to obtain enough acceleration at the moment it leaves the launch pad. If
greater thrust is needed due to increased rocket weight, there will be ways to redesign the feeding line, change
the combustion chamber pressure, and redesign the solid fuel in terms of port diameter, number of ports, and
the length of solid fuel.