A New Approach to Multidisciplinary Design Optimization of Solid Propulsion System Including Heat Transfer and Ablative Cooling

Abstract

AbstrAct:The optimum design of a solid propulsion system consists of optimization of various disciplines including structure, aerothermodynamics, heat transfer, and grain geometry. In this paper, an efficient model of every discipline has been developed, and a suitable framework is introduced for these hard-coupled disciplines. Hybrid optimization algorithm is used to find the global optimum point including genetic algorithm and sequential quadratic programing. To show the performance of the proposed algorithm, the required correction factor values have been carefully derived using comparison between more than 10 real solid propulsion systems and the proposed algorithm results. According to the results, the derived correction factors are close to 1, with scattering level better than 0.97. In addition, it is shown that the proposed algorithm (errors < 8%) is more accurate in comparison with the conventional approach (errors < 17%). Then, for a case study, multidisciplinary analysis has been done based on 3 general objectives including dry mass, total mass, and specific impulse. It means that the optimum specific impulse is not the maximum value and the optimum dry mass is not the minimum value. Finally, the proposed algorithm can be used to directly derive the optimum configuration for every mission requirement.

Integrated Optimization of Ascent Trajectory and SRM Design of Multistage Launch Vehicles

“…The problem of optimizing the initial geometry of a three-dimensional finocyl grain has been faced by many investigations. Past works dealt with the problem by using a variety of optimization algorithms (sequential quadratic programming, 1 simulated annealing, 2 hybrid optimization techniques 3,4 or hyper-heuristic approach 5 ), but always assuming, as performance measure, a quantity referred to the SRM alone (such as average thrust, 1, 2 specific impulse, 4 propellant 3 or motor 5 gross mass) and considering constraints related only to SRM geometry or operation (burning time, fixed length or outer diameter of the grain, minimum thrust level, and so on). An attempt to the integrated design and optimization of a complete SRM-based aerospace system, such as an air-launched satellite vehicle, 6 a ground-launched interceptor 7 or a four-stage launcher, 8 which contemporarily considers solid propulsion, vehicle masses configuration and flight mechanics, was made, but by using simple models for both grain geometry and trajectory.…”

Integrated Optimization of First-Stage SRM and Ascent Trajectory of Multistage Launch Vehicles

“…The problem of optimizing the initial geometry of a three-dimensional finocyl grain has been faced by many investigations. Past works dealt with the problem by using a variety of optimization algorithms (sequential quadratic programming [1], simulated annealing [2], hybrid optimization techniques [3,4] or hyper-heuristic approaches [5]), but always assuming, as performance measure, a quantity referred to the SRM alone (such as average thrust [1,2], specific impulse [4], propellant [3], or motor [5,6] gross mass) and considering constraints related only to SRM geometry or operation (burning time, fixed length or outer diameter of the grain, minimum thrust level, and so on). A thorough review of the state-of-the-art of design optimization of SRM propulsion systems has been recently presented in Ref.…”