Deficiencies and requirements in modeling of slag generation in solid rocket motors

Salita, Mark

doi:10.2514/3.23835

Cited by 83 publications

(21 citation statements)

References 20 publications

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“…The mass distribution from SRM firings has been shown to be bi-modal [1]. While there is a significant population in the submillimeter size range, our analysis is focused on the large particle population due to the obvious danger it poses to existing and future orbital platforms.…”

Section: Assumptionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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An analysis of the orbital distribution of solid rocket motor slag

Horstman¹,

Mulrooney

2009

Acta Astronautica

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The contribution made by orbiting solid rocket motors (SRMs) to the orbital debris environment is both potentially significant and insufficiently studied. A combination of rocket motor design and the mechanisms of the combustion process can lead to the emission of sufficiently large and numerous by-products to warrant assessment of their contribution to the orbital debris environment. These particles are formed during SRM tail-off, or the termination of burn, by the rapid expansion, dissemination, and solidification of the molten Al 2 O 3 slag pool accumulated during the main burn phase of SRMs utilizing immersion-type nozzles.Though the usage of SRMs is low compared to the usage of liquid fueled motors, the propensity of SRMs to generate particles in the 100 μm and larger size regime has caused concern regarding their contributing to the debris environment. Particle sizes as large as 1 cm have been witnessed in ground tests conducted under vacuum conditions and comparable sizes have been estimated via ground-based telescopic and in-situ observations of sub-orbital SRM tail-off events.Using sub-orbital and post recovery observations, a simplistic number-size-velocity distribution of slag from on-orbit SRM firings was postulated. In this paper we have developed more elaborate distributions and emission scenarios and modeled the resultant orbital population and its time evolution by incorporating a historical database of SRM launches, propellant masses, and likely location and time of particulate deposition. From this analysis a more comprehensive understanding has been obtained of the role of SRM ejecta in the orbital debris environment, indicating that SRM slag is a significant component of the current and future population.

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Section: Assumptionsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…These particles are conjectured to result from explosive boilover of the molten Aluminum Oxide (Al 2 O 3 ) slag pool that accumulates around the immersion nozzles common to many SRMs. A portion of this molten slag is jettisoned out of the nozzle and into free space [1,3].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

An analysis of the orbital distribution of solid rocket motor slag

Horstman¹,

Mulrooney

2009

Acta Astronautica

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“…The presence of the cavity in the vicinity of the submerged nozzle region makes the flow-field complex. The flow in the aft-dome chamber is turbulent, whereas the flow in the cavity is laminar with possible recirculation regions 5,6 . Previous calculation methodologies [10][11][12] involve use of inviscid methods with boundary-layer corrections to the mean flow.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…During the main burn phase, exhaust particles were collected in numerous, high-altitude samplings and ground tests are well documented in the literature [1][2][3][4] . Salita 5,6 and Cesco 7 , et al have given a detailed overview of issues and problems of slag accumulation prediction methods. However, lack of good data of Al 2 O 3 particle size distributions in the chamber and erroneous use of potential flow modelling of viscous dominated flows have led to improper conclusions on slag accumulation which adversely affects the design of solid rocket motors in yester years.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Slag Prediction in Submerged Rocket Nozzle Through Two-Phase CFD Simulations

Chaturvedi¹,

Kumar²,

Chakraborty³

2015

DSJ

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“…In 1990s, a number of two-phase compressible viscous CFD codes have been developed for modeling internal two-phase flows in a SRM, e.g., Thiokol's SHARP (Golafshani and Loh [7]), SRA's CELMINT (Sabnis et al [17]), and Aerospace's IS (Chang [4]). In mid 1990s, Salita [16], Chauvot et al [6], and Liaw et al [11] focused their research on slag behavior, including combustion, evaporation, and breakup. Their work adds insight to slag accumulation process.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Aluminized composite solid propellant particle path in the combustion chamber of a solid rocket motor

Xiao¹,

Amano²

2006

WIT Transactions on Engineering Sciences, Vol 52

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In a solid rocket motor (SRM) using aluminized composite solid propellant and a submerged nozzle, a two-phase flow needs to be investigated by both experiment and computation. The boundary conditions for the ejecting particles constrain their trajectories, hence these affect the two-phase flow calculations, and thus significantly affect the evaluation of the slag accumulation. A new method to determine the velocities of particles on the solid propellant surface was developed in the present study, which is based on the RTR (X-ray Real-time Radiography) technique and coupled with the two-phase flow numerical simulation. A method was developed to simulate the particle ejection from the propellant surface. The moving trajectories of metal particles in a firing combustion chamber were measured by using the RTR high-speed motion analyzer. Image processing software was also developed for the RTR images, so the trajectories of particles could be obtained. Numerical simulations with different propellant-surface boundary conditions were performed to calculate particle trajectories. By comparing the two trajectories, an appropriate boundary condition on the propellant surface was referred. The present method can be extended to study the impingement of particles on a wall and other related twophase flows.

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Deficiencies and requirements in modeling of slag generation in solid rocket motors

Cited by 83 publications

References 20 publications

An analysis of the orbital distribution of solid rocket motor slag

An analysis of the orbital distribution of solid rocket motor slag

Slag Prediction in Submerged Rocket Nozzle Through Two-Phase CFD Simulations

Aluminized composite solid propellant particle path in the combustion chamber of a solid rocket motor

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