Present understanding regarding the damping provided by solid-propellant rocket motor nozzles, during axial instabilities, is reviewed. Expressions describing the various modes of wave energy losses to the nozzle and the nozzle decay coefficient are derived and their use in practice is discussed. Available theories for the prediction of the nozzle admittance and available methods for the experimental determination of nozzle admittances are evaluated. Experimental nozzle admittance data obtained by use of the impedance tube method, for two different solid-propellant rocket nozzles, is presented and discussed. An analysis of the experimental nozzle admittance data shows that 1) the admittances of short nozzles are independent of the frequency when the wavelength of the oscillation is much longer than the length of the nozzle convergent section, 2) the admittances of short nozzles are practically independent of the geometrical details of their convergent sections, and 3) the measured nozzle admittances are larger than those predicted by the short nozzle theory. The reported experimental data are used to derive expressions for the nozzle decay coefficients for cylindrical combustors experiencing axial instabilities. These expressions are compared with a corresponding expression derived in related experimental studies and good agreement is shown.
NomenclatureA N = nondimensional nozzle admittance defined in Eq. (11) c = velocity of sound, fps e = specific internal energy, Btu/lbm E = energy flux per unit area, Btu/sec ft 2 h = specific internal enthalpy, Btu/lbm H = specific stagnation enthalpy, Btu/lbm i = imaginary unit, (-1 ) 1/2 / = mean wave energy flux per unit area, Btu/ft 2 Im = imaginary part of a complex quantity J = ratio of nozzle throat area to chamber cross-sectional area L = length, ft M = mean flow Mach number p = pressure, lbf/ft 2 r c = chamber radius, ft Re = real part of a complex quantity s = specific entropy, Btu/(lbm °R) S = cross-sectional area, ft 2 ; also nondimensional frequency, cor c /c 0 t = time, sec T = period of an oscillation, sec u = axial component of velocity, fps v = velocity vector, fps V = quantity defined in Eq. (8) Y = nozzle admittance, see Eq. (5), ft 3 /sec Ibf z = axial distance, ft a = growth or decay rate, sec" 1 ; also a measure of amplitude attenuation by the nozzle defined in Eq. (18) P = quantity defined in Eq. (18) y = ratio of specific heats F = nondimensional real part of nozzle specific admittance; defined in Eq. (20) r\ = nondimensional imaginary part of nozzle specific admittance; defined in Eq. (20) / = wavelength of the oscillation, ft A N = nondimensional nozzle attenuation coefficient, OL N L c /c 0 p = density, lbm/ft 3 co = frequency, rad/sec | | = absolute value of a quantity < > = time average of a quantity, defined in Eq. (9) Subscripts 0,1,2 = respectively, denote zeroth (i.e., steady state), first-, and second-order quantities N = quantity related to the nozzle c = quantity related to the combustion chamber Superscript ( )' = a perturbation quantity