Analysis of Multistage Rockets

P M V Subbarao
Professor
Mechanical Engineering Department

Maximization of reduction in the vehicle’s mass on the way

to orbit ….
 Multistage Rockets : Definitions
• Total mass of rocket, mt, may be written as sum of 3
primary components:
– Payload mass, mL
– Propellant mass, mp
– Structural mass, ms
• Includes everything but payload and propellant
• Engines, tanks, controls, etc.
mt  mL  m p  ms
If rocket consumes all its propellant during firing,
burnout mass consists of structure and payload:
mb  mL  mS
Mass Reductions by A Rocket on the Way to Orbit
 Details of Mass Vs Distance in an ith Stage

ith

ith ith ith ith ith

 Mass Fractions
msi msi
Structural coefficient i  
of ith stage mt ,i  mt ,i 1 msi  m pi

mt ,i 1
Payload ratio in ith stage i 
mt ,i  mt ,i 1
mt ,n 1 mL
Payload ratio in final stage n  
mt ,n  mt ,n 1 mt ,n  mL

m pi
Propellant ratio of ith i   i  1 i
stage msi  m pi
 Dynamic Mass of the Rocket : Mass fractions

Mass ratio for ith stage Mass of Rocket in the start of ith stage travel
Mass of Rocket at the end of ith stage travel

mt ,i
Ri 
mt ,i 1  msi
mt ,i 1  m pi  msi m  m pi  msi 
m  mt ,i 1 
ti 1
Ri 
mt ,i 1  msi Ri 
m  msi 
t ,i

m  mt ,i 1 
t ,i 1
t ,i

mt ,i 1
1
m mt ,i 1  1  i
Ri  t ,i
Ri 
mt ,i 1 m
 si i   i
mt ,i  mt ,i1  mt ,i  mt ,i1 
 Rocket Equation for ith Stage

dmr ,i
dVr ,i  C dt  D dVr ,i

C dmr ,i
g
 g dt mr ,i dt
dt mr ,i
Vr ,i mr ,i1 tb ,i1
dmr ,i
dVr ,i  C
dmr ,i
 gdt  dV r ,i  C  mr,i
g  dt
mr,i Vr ,i mr ,i tb,i


 mr ,tb ,i1 

Vr ,i  C ln    g tb,i 1  tb,i 

 mr ,tb,i  

 mr ,tb ,i 
Vr ,i  C ln    g tb ,i 1  tb,i 

 r ,tb ,i1 
m 
 Velocity Increment in ith Stage Firing

 mr ,tb ,i1  m p ,i  ms ,i  
Vr ,i  C ln    g tb,i 1  tb,i 

 m r , t b ,i 1
 ms ,i 

 mt ,i 1  m pi  msi 
Vi  C ln    gti
 mt ,i 1  msi 

 mt ,i 
Vi  C ln    gti
 mt ,i 1  msi 
 1  i 
Vi  C ln Ri  gti Vi  C ln    gti
 i   i 
 Final Velocity of an n Stage Launch System

The final velocity of an n stage launch system is the

sum of the velocity gains from each stage.
n
Vn   Vi
i 1

n   1  i  
Vn   C ln    gti 
i 1   i   i  
Total mass of Propellant consumed in n stage:
n
m p total   m p ,i
i 1
 The Art of Multi-staging in Rockets
• Main idea is to minimize total propellant consumption required
to launch a pay load at a given final velocity.
• Discard empty tanks and extra structure as rocket travels, so
that this mass is not subjected to gravity losses
• Large engines used for initial high thrust phase, may produce
excessive accelerations when propellant is nearly consumed.
• Multistage rocket is a series of individual vehicles or stages,
each with its own structure, tanks and engines
• Each stage accelerates payload before being detached.
Two points:
1. Stages are ordered in number of firing.
2. Analysis of multistage rockets is similar to that for single stage
– Payload for an particular stage is the mass of all subsequent
stages 10
 Design Evaluation of Launch vehicle

Space (Ideal) velocity increment

n
Vn   Ci ln Ri
1

Payload fraction
mL  mt 2  mt 3  mt 4   mL 
     .... 
mt1  mt1  mt 2  mt 3   mtn 

mL  1  2  3   n 
     .... 
m01  1  1  1  2  1  3   1  n 
The Indian : POLAR SATELLITE LAUNCH VEHICLE
• Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) is the third
generation launch vehicle of India.
• It is the first Indian launch vehicle to be equipped
with liquid stages.
• PSLV emerged as the reliable and versatile
workhorse launch vehicle of India.
• It executed 39 consecutively successful missions by
June 2017.
• During 1994-2017 period, the vehicle has launched
48 Indian satellites and 209 satellites for customers
from abroad.
• Besides, the vehicle successfully launched two
spacecraft – Chandrayaan-1 in 2008 and Mars
Orbiter Spacecraft in 2013 – that later traveled to
Moon and Mars respectively
 TECHNICAL SPECIFICATIONS : PSLV for Sun-
synchronous Polar Orbits
• Payload to SSPO: 1,750 kg
• PSLV can take up to 1,750 kg of payload to Sun-
Synchronous Polar Orbits of 600 km altitude.
• Due to its unmatched reliability, PSLV has also been used to
launch various satellites into Geosynchronous and
Geostationary orbits, like satellites from the IRNSS
constellation.
• Payload to Sub GTO: 1,425 kg
 PSLV - Stage 1

• First Stage: PS1

• PSLV uses the S139 solid rocket motor that is
augmented by 6 solid strap-on boosters.
• Engine: S139Fuel: HTPBMax. Thrust: 4800kN
• Strap-on Motors
• PSLV uses 6 solid rocket strap-on motors to
augment the thrust provided by the first stage
in its PSLV-G and PSLV-XL variants.
However, strap-ons are not used in the core
alone version (PSLV-CA).
• Fuel: HTPBMax. Thrust: 719 kN
 PSLV - Stage 2

• SLV uses an Earth storable liquid rocket engine for its

second stage, know as the Vikas engine, developed by
Liquid Propulsion Systems Centre.
• Engine: VikasFuel: UDMH + N2O4Max. Thrust: 799 kN
 PSLV - Stage 3

• The third stage of PSLV is a solid rocket motor that

provides the upper stages high thrust after the atmospheric
phase of the launch.
• Fuel: HTPBMax. Thrust: 240 kN
 PSLV - Stage 4
• The PS4 is the uppermost stage of PSLV, comprising of two
Earth storable liquid engines.
• Engine: 2 x PS-4Fuel: MMH + MONMax. Thrust: 7.6 x 2
kN.
• Height: 44 m
• Diameter: 2.8 m
• Number of Stages: 4
• Lift Off Mass: 320 tonnes (XL)
• Variants: 3 (PSLV-G, PSLV - CA, PSLV - XL)
• First Flight: September 20, 1993
 Criteria of Performance

• Specific to rockets only.

– thrust
– specific impulse
– total impulse
– effective exhaust velocity
– thrust coefficient
– characteristic velocity
 Thermodynamic Design of ith Stage
For an ith stage rocket engine:

T  m ejectsVejects  Ae  pe  pamb 
Where:
mejects = propellant mass flow rate
pe = exit pressure, paamb = ambient pressure
Vejects = exit plane velocity, Ae = exit area
• The ratio of thrust / ejects mass flow rate is used to define a
rocket’s specific impulse-best measure of overall performance of
rocket motor.
T
I sp 
m ejects
In SI terms, the units of I are m/s or Ns/kg.
 Total Impulse (Itot)
tb
• Defined as::
I total   Tdt
0

• Thus the same total impulse may be obtained by

• high T, short tb (usually preferable), or
• low T, long tb
 Effective Exhaust Velocity

• Convenient to define an effective exhaust velocity (Veff), where:

T
T  m ejectsVeff Veff  I
m ejects

Veff  U e 
 pe  pamb Ae
m ejects
 Thrust Coefficient (CF)

• Defined as:
T
CF 
Pc At
where pc = combustion chamber pressure,

At = nozzle throat area

• Depends primarily on (pc/pa) so a good indicator of
nozzle performance – dominated by pressure ratio.
 Characteristic Velocity (c*)

• Defined as: Pc At
C *

m ejects (6)

•Calculated from standard test data.

• It is independent of nozzle performance and is therefore
used as a measure of combustion efficiency – dominated
by Tc (combustion chamber temperature).
 Thermodynamic Performance - Thrust

• Parameters affecting thrust are primarily:

– mass flow rate
– exhaust velocity
– exhaust pressure
– nozzle exit area
Thermodynamic Performance - Specific Impulse
 Thermodynamic Performance - Specific Impulse

Variable Parameters - Observations

• Strong pressure ratio effect - but rapidly diminishing returns
after about 30:1.
• High Tc value desirable for high I - but gives problems with
heat transfer into case walls and dissociation of combustion
products – practical limit between about 2750 and 3500 K,
depending on propellant.
• Low value of molecular weight desirable – favouring use of
hydrogen-based fuels.
• Low values of  desirable.
 Thrust Coefficient (CF)
• Maximum thrust when exhausting into a
vacuum (e.g. in space), when:
(11a
)

27
 Thrust Coefficient (CF) - Observations

• More desirable to run a rocket under-expanded (to left of

optimum line) rather than over-expanded.
• Uses shorter nozzle with reduced weight and size.
• Increasing pressure ratio improves performance but
improvements diminish above about 30/1.
• Large nozzle exit area required at high pressure ratios –
implications for space applications.
 Actual Rocket Performance

• Performance may be affected by any of the following

deviations to simplifying assumptions:
– Properties of products of combustion vary with static
temperature and thus position in nozzle.
– Specific heats of combustion products vary with
temperature.
– Non-isentropic flow in nozzle.
– Heat loss to case and nozzle walls.
– Pressure drop in combustion chamber due to heat release.
– Power required for pumping liquid propellants.
– Suspended particles present in exhaust gas.
 Internal Ballistics

• Liquid propellant engines store fuel and oxidiser separately

- then introduced into combustion chamber.
• Solid propellant motors use propellant mixture containing
all material required for combustion.
• Majority of modern GW use solid propellant rocket motors,
mainly due to simplicity and storage advantages.
• Internal ballistics is study of combustion process of solid
propellant.
 Solid Propellant Combustion

• Combustion chamber is high pressure tank containing

propellant charge at whose surface burning occurs.

• No arrangement made for its control – charge ignited and left

to itself so must self-regulate to avoid explosion.

• Certain measure of control provided by charge and

combustion chamber design and with inhibitor coatings.