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Performance Additives for Hybrid Rockets

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Chemical Rocket Propulsion

Part of the book series: Springer Aerospace Technology ((SAT))

Abstract

Addition of performance-improving materials in the solid hydrocarbon fuels of hybrid rockets has been studied extensively both in academia and also in the industry. The primary motivation has been to improve the specific impulse, density impulse, and regression rate performance of the propulsion system. Despite the fact that hybrid rockets are particularly suitable for the inclusion of performance additives, which are typically in solid phase, successful implementation has been quite difficult to achieve. In this paper, we evaluate the feasibility of using performance additives with the following primary objectives: (a) develop a comprehensive survey of fuel additives (and the best binders) for hybrid rockets in order to establish the state of the art in the field, (b) rank these additives based on performance and a number of important practical factors, and (c) recommend a subset of promising additives for further evaluation. Even though, this feasibility study primarily makes use of the information in the open literature, new thermochemical calculations has also been conducted in order to establish the theoretical performance of various propellant systems operating at a common reference state (i.e., chamber pressure, nozzle expansion ratio, etc.).

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Abbreviations

Alex:

ALuminum EXploded

DCPD:

DiCycloPentaDiene

FLOX:

Fluorine Liquid Oxygen

GOx:

Gaseous Oxygen

HTPB:

Hydroxyl-Terminated PolyButadiene

ICBM:

InterContinental Ballistic Missile

LGCP:

Long Grain Center-Perforated

LOx:

Liquid Oxygen

MON:

Mixture of Oxides of Nitrogen

NTO:

diNitrogen TetrOxide

O/F:

Oxidizer to Fuel ratio

ORPHEE:

Operative Research Project on Hybrid Engine in Europe

pDCPD:

polyDiCycloPentaDiene

PBAN:

PolyButadiene acrylic acid AcryloNitrile

PMMA:

PolyMethylMethacrylate

PSU:

Pennsylvania State University

PU:

PolyUrethane

SF:

Solid Fuel

SFRJ:

Solid Fuel RamJet

SPG:

Space Propulsion Group

USAF:

United States Air Force

UTC:

United Technologies

XTC:

X-ray Translucent Casing

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Mechanical Engineering Department, KOÇ University, İstanbul 34450, Turkey

    Arif Karabeyoğlu

  2. SPG Inc., San Mateo, CA 94402, USA

    Arif Karabeyoğlu

Authors
  1. Arif Karabeyoğlu
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Correspondence to Arif Karabeyoğlu .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Space Propulsion Laboratory (SPLab) Department of Aerospace Science and Technology, Politecnico di Milano, Milan, Italy

    Luigi T. De Luca

  2. Institute of Space and Astronautical Science (ISAS), Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA), Sagamihara, Japan

    Toru Shimada

  3. Department of Chemical Engineering, Mendeleev University of Chemical Technology, Moscow, Russia

    Valery P. Sinditskii

  4. The Inner Arch, Poissy, France

    Max Calabro

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Karabeyoğlu, A. (2017). Performance Additives for Hybrid Rockets. In: De Luca, L., Shimada, T., Sinditskii, V., Calabro, M. (eds) Chemical Rocket Propulsion. Springer Aerospace Technology. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-27748-6_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-27748-6_5

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-27746-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-27748-6

  • eBook Packages: EngineeringEngineering (R0)

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