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Missile Technology
Missile Technology
ADVANTAGES:
It is very easy to fabricate
The cost of production is very low.
DISADVANTAGE:
This particular system is very far from meeting the
requirements of modern high performance
rocket motors.
Contd..
POWDER CAN IGNITER
In this type of igniter pallets are used .Pallets are made
up of black powder or metal oxidants and aluminium
powder. Here directional control is done but not
sufficient. It is only suitable for small rocket motors and
not suitable for large rocket motors because of its erratic
transient ignition characteristics and it is rapturous.
ADVANTAGES:
Ease of fabrication and production cost is low.
DISADVANTAGES:
As the igniter is made of steel casing the weight is
much heavier.
Only suitable for short range
Contd..
JELLY ROLL IGNITER
It consists of a film coated pyrotechnic and a binder. Then the film is
rolled over a rod with a squib support at the front and back. Addition
to that a rubber support is given externally. Ignition is generally
started at the squib. In jelly roll the ignition transfers layer by layer.
Productive cover is used to tight the main charge.
ADVANTAGES:
These igniters are nozzle insertables.
They make efficient use of motor fuel volume.
The hardware weight is low.
DISADVANTAGES:
They are very fragile and not suitable for large rocket motor
They are difficult to manufacture and the principle of operation is
complex.
They produce high shocks.
Contd..
UNCONFINED IGNITERS:
Actually they are confined. They are unconfined
only relative to others.
FILM IGNITER:
The film igniter is produced by painting an
ignitable fuel oxidizer binder mixture directly
onto the propellant surface. The film normally
contains,
• Fine metal powder – aluminium powder
• Per chlorate oxidizer - ammoniumper
chlorate Polymeric binder.
The film can be activated by the conventional
pyrotechnic igniter. It permits the use of low
conventional ignition system and has often be
used an aid to ignite the systems which handle
materials difficult to ignite.
Contd..
CONDUCTING FILM IGNITER:
It contains the strips of pyrotechnic material applied directly to the propellant, which can overlay of circuit
leads. It consists of the application of thin strips within the perpendicular overlay of actuation circuitry. A
typical pyrotechnic mixture consists of metal powder, per chlorate oxidizer, silver conductor and the polymeric
binder. Aluminium foils are used as protective layer of conducting film igniter.
ADVANTAGES:
These igniters produce low pressure peaks
They make efficient use of space
They are intensive to electromagnetic radiation
DISADVANTAGES:
They are very difficult to apply
Quality control is difficult
They cannot be removed from the motor easily
They are very sensitive to friction and resistance
Contd..
NOZZLE IGNITERS (or) BASICALLY CONTROLLED IGNITERS: BASKET
IGNITER:
This type of igniter contains pallet charges. Basket igniter are fabricated from heavy wire mesh ,
perforated sheet metal or perforated glass fibre reinforced resins. The perforated container retain
the high surface area palette charge when it burns. The exhaust products ejected in a pattern
determined by the geometry of the design contains reactive products as well as reactive
materials. This system makes available in the wide choice of configuration allowing for some
flame pattern control.
ADVANTAGES:
This igniter is made efficiently strong to withstand environmental conditions.
Proper control of length and port area can furnish a controlled flame pattern and give medium
to fast ignition with low ignition charge.
DISADVANTAGES:
The hardware weight is high.
Forward attachment is often difficult
The burning area of the pallets can’t be readily determined
Internal igniter pressure and mass delivery rate are difficult to determine.
Contd..
PYROGEN:
A pyrogen igniter consists of small nozzle pressure chamber
containing high energy fast burning rocket propellant usually having
a complex geometry.
Essentially it is a rocket motor within a rocket motor. The design is
especially used in very large motor.
ADVANTAGES:
The igniters have little or no shocks.
They eliminate the handling of large amounts of relatively
hazardous metal oxide charges.
They are adoptable to either head end or launcher mount
applications.
DISADVANTAGES:
The pyrogen must itself have an igniter and it’s therefore depends
upon the principle used to ignite.
Contd..
ALCOJET:
There are two tubes in this igniter .In the annular space between the two tubes, we
have main charge. Booster charge present inside the tube. The booster charge is first
ignited. The ignition passes through the perforations in the inner wall to the main
charge. There are perforations in the outer tube through which flame comes out. Since
there is a control, it is a ballistically controlled igniter.
Injectors
INJECTORS :
An injector or ejector is a system of admitting the fuel into the combustion engine. Its
function is similar to a carburettor.
FUNCTION OF AN INJECTOR:
liquids fuel to small droplets: atomization. It also helps to distribute and mix the
propellant in a correctly proportionate mixture of fuel and oxidizer, which results in
uniform mass flow
Contd..
INJECTION HOLE PATTERNS:
on the face of the injector is closely related to the internal
manifolds. These hole patterns provides the distribution of fuel
from the injector inlet to all the injection holes
large complex manifold volume allows low passage velocities
and good distribution of flow over the chamber. A small
manifold volume allows for a light weight injector and
reduces the amount of “dribble” after the main walls are shut.
Contd..
Contd..
IMPINGING STREAM PATTERN :
Here L is the length of the cylinder A L/At is the chamber contraction ratio, and L c is the length of
the conical frustum.
Contd..
CHAMBER VOLUME - DEFINITION:
The volume up to the nozzle throat section and it includes the cylindrical chamber and converging
cone frustum of the nozzle. The volume and shape of a combustion chamber are selected after
evaluating various parameters.
1. The volume for adequate mixing, evaporation and complete combustion of propellants.
2. Chamber volume varies for different propellants with the time delay necessary to vaporize and
activate the propellants and with the speed of the propellant combination.
3. Volume is too small, combustion is incomplete and the performance is poor.
4. With higher chamber pressure or with highly reactive propellants and with injectors that give
improved mixing, a smaller chamber volume is usually permissible.
5. If the chamber volume and diameter are large, the heat transfer rates to the wall will be reduced, the
area exposed to heat will be large
Contd..
6. The thrust chamber mass is a function of the chamber dimensions, chamber pressure, and nozzle area ratio, and the
method of cooling.
7. Manufacturing consideration favor a cylinder with a double cone bow tie shaped nozzle, low cost materials and simple
fabrication process.
8. The length of the chamber and the nozzle relate directly to the overall length of the vehicle. A large diameter but short
chamber can allow a somewhat shorter vehicle with a lower structural inert vehicle mass.
9. Any pressure reduction at the nozzle inlet reduces the exhaust velocity and the performance of the vehicle. These losses
become appreciable when the chamber volume less than three times the throat area.
10. For the same thrust the combustion volume and the nozzle throat area become smaller as the operating chamber
pressure is increased. This means that the chamber length and the nozzle length also decrease with increasing chamber
pressure, the performance will go up with chamber pressure.
Propellant Hammer
It’s a pressure surging present in the liquid propellant feed line.
Basically the feed lines are very thin. On sudden closure of valve, a pressure pulse is generated at the
neighbourhood of the valve. It travels back to the tank at some velocity and keeps the liquid static
pressure increasing.
Equation for wave speed:
As the speed of sound in a fluid is the peak pressure depends on the fluid compressibility if the valve
is closed abruptly.
In this type of systems there are no moving parts such as turbines and pumps are used.
However, the pressurization of the propellant tanks requires them to be comparatively
much heavier and introduces a weight penalty besides other problems. Therefore this
system is unsuitable for large rocket and long range missions.
GAS PRESSURE FEED SYSTEM:
TURBO PUMP FEED SYSTEM:
In the turbo pump feed system, the propellants are pumped into the combustor by gas turbine driven by
centrifugal pumps
The turbines derive the power from the expansion of hot gases .The gases are generated separately by the
gas generator. Figure above depicts a general arrangement of a turbo pump system. In order to achieve
flexibility in choosing the design and operating parameters the fuel and oxidizer pumps can be separately
by their turbines.
The turbine operates on a separate gas stream generated from the propellants in an independent gas
generator. A pressurizing gas can be used to increase the pressure of the propellants at the pump suctions
to avoid cavitation and the resulting instability in pump operation.
Contd..
Generally turbine speeds are high , therefore
propellant pumps can be driven at optimum speeds
through reduction gear with an additional weight
penalty. The working gas for the turbine can also be
generated at optimum temperature and pressure. The
generator also has its own injection and ignition
systems. The flow of propellants to the gas generator
occurs due to the action of pressurizing gases. If the
gas pressurization is not employed to the propellants
can be bled from the delivery lines of the pumps. The
propellant flow required for driving the turbines is of
the order of 1.5 to 5% of the main flow. The turbine
exhaust is also expanded through an exhaust nozzle to
provide an additional thrust.
METHODS OF COOLING THETHRUST CHAMBER:
Contd..
ACTIVE COOLING SYSTEM:
In liquid rocket motor, the nozzle and chamber walls are exposed to hot
combustion products. Usually these walls are provided with ducts.
It includes;
Insulation cooling
Heat sink cooling
Ablative cooling
Radiation cooling
Insulation cooling:
This method is not a real method of cooling by itself; it is
mostly used in combination with other cooling
techniques such as, heat sink, radiation and regenerative
cooling. A very special material is pyrolytic graphite.
This material has high and low conductivity directions.
While the conductivity parallel to the layer planes is in
the order of 2x103 W/m.k, the conductivity perpendicular
to the layer plane is only 5.75W/m.k. this make it is
possible to conduct the heat in preferred directions, and
so to avoid the heating of critical parts.
Heat sink cooling:
Heat sink cooling is mostly used in solid rockets. The method consists of applying a piece of solid material
with good conductivity and a high specific heat capacity to certain hot spots. The heat sink absorbs the heat
from the hot gases, thereby raising its own temperature but keeping the wall relatively cool. This method is
only suitable for short duration applications, but is sometimes used in combination with insulation cooling
for small liquid rocket engines
Ablative cooling:
Ablative cooling consists of covering hot gas side of the engine wall with a material that decomposes endo thermally at high temperatures, while forming a insulating char
layer. It is often used in combination with radiation and insulation cooling and chosen for upper stage motors and reaction control engines for the sake of simplicity. It is also an
effective means to keep the temperature of variable thrust motors within an acceptable range. Regenerative cooling often poses a problem for variable thrust motors, because of
the variable chamber pressure and flow rate. Therefore, ablative
cooling offers a simple and efficient way to keep the engine wall relatively cool.
Radiation cooling:
Radiation cooling is often used in upper stage engines and reaction control engines in combination with insulation and ablative cooling. The hot walls radiate the heat to the surroundings. As the radiative heat flux is
proportional to T4, the material temperature must be high to obtain a large radiative heat flux.
Refractory metals, such as molybdenum, niobium can withstand high temperature without losing their strength. Some refractory metals easily react with the combustion products. As the melting point of their oxides or
compounds often is much lower than that of the metals, coatings have to be applied on many cases. The refractory alloys based on titanium, niobium and molybdenum have found successful applications as nozzle
construction materials. Wolfram (tungsten) alloys have found applications for nozzle inserts.
COMBUSTION SYSTEM OF SOLID ROCKETS:
PHYSICAL AND CHEMICAL PROCESS:
The combustion in the solid propellant motor involves exceedingly complex reaction taking place in the solid, liquid & gas phase of a heterogeneous mixture.
Visual observations and measurements of flames in simple experiments such as strand burner test give an insight into the combustion processes. For double base propellants, the combustion flame structure appears to
be homogeneous and one-dimensional along the burning direction. When the heat from the combustion melts, decomposes and vaporizes the propellant at the burning surface, the resulting gases seems to be already
premixed.
Burn rate catalysts seem to affect the primary combustion zone rather than the
processes in the condensed phase. They catalyze the reaction at or near the surface, increase or decrease the heat input to the surface, the change the amount of propellant that is burned.
Solid Fuel Geometry:
Contd..