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Experimental test analysis of a 300 N hybrid rocket engine

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Abstract

A hybrid rocket engine test bench experiment carried out the thrust 300 N, retaining nitrous gas as an oxidant, and 70 weight percent paraffin and 30 weight percent aluminum as fuel. To enhance the regression rate, new fuels such as paraffin-based fuel have been created, allowing for more compact engine designs with high thrust densities. As a result, the use of hybrid rocket engines in several domains, such as sounding rockets and small satellites for educational purposes and launch vehicle propulsion systems, has become possible. The solid fuel grain diameter is assumed to spread the characterization under different conditions. Estimate the rocket performance in the assumed condition and develop the test bench setup. In this paper, the data are composed of a 165 mm length of grain, external diameter is 79.6 mm and internal/port diameter is 8 mm. The injector plate used in this experiment is three injector holes with 120°. This injector is a showerhead that is simple in design and it is frequently used in hybrid rocket engines. Constraints such as the pressure in the combustion chamber being 50 bar and the SS304 nozzle, thrust were measured. Four separate test series were conducted. In the first test, one hole in the showerhead injector geometry was studied. In the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th tests, injector plates with three injector holes were used. The test bench of a hybrid rocket engine has many components (oxidizer/pressure tank, combustion chamber with the pre-combustion, post-combustion chamber, conical shape nozzle, igniter, injector plate, etc.).

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Abbreviations

Pc :

Combustion chamber pressure in N/m2

Isp :

Specific impulse in second

C*:

Characteristic velocity or C-star in m/sec

Tcc :

Temperature in combustion chamber in Kelvin

Wt.:

Weight in Newton

LOX:

Liquid oxygen (dimensionless)

N2O:

Nitrous oxide (dimensionless)

H2O2 :

Hydrogen peroxide (dimensionless)

Al:

Aluminum (dimensionless)

SS304:

Stainless steel 304 (dimensionless)

HRE:

Hybrid rocket engine (dimensionless)

CEA:

Chemical equilibrium with applications (dimensionless)

CFD:

Computational fluid dynamics (dimensionless)

HTPB:

Hydroxyl-terminated poly-butadiene (dimensionless)

O/F:

Oxidizer/fuel (dimensionless)

Cf :

Coefficient of force (dimensionless)

\({\dot{m}}_{p}\) :

Propellant mass flow rate in kg/sec

\({D}_{ext,g}\) :

Solid fuel grain external diameter in mm

\({D}_{int,g}\) :

Solid fuel grain internal diameter in mm

\({D}_{int,g}\left(0\right)\) :

Fuel grain initial internal diameter/port diameter in mm

\({G}_{ox}(0)\) :

Oxidizer mass flux at the beginning in kg/m2-sec

\({L}_{g}\) :

Length of fuel grain in mm

\({L}_{pre}\) :

Length of pre-combustion chamber in mm

\({L}_{post}\) :

Length of post-combustion chamber in mm

\({L}_{con}\) :

Convergent section of nozzle length in mm

\({L}_{div}\) :

Divergent section of nozzle length in mm

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Lovely Professional University, Phagwara, Punjab, 144001, India

    Sachin Srivastava, Amit Kumar Thakur & Lovi Raj Gupta

  2. Uttaranchal Institute of Technology, Dehradun, Uttarakhand, 248007, India

    Rajesh Singh

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  1. Sachin Srivastava
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  2. Amit Kumar Thakur
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Correspondence to Amit Kumar Thakur.

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Srivastava, S., Thakur, A.K., Gupta, L.R. et al. Experimental test analysis of a 300 N hybrid rocket engine. AS (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s42401-024-00270-9

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