Investigation of a Marine Water-Breathing Hybrid Ram-Rocket Motor

Examining Metal Additives in a Marine Hybrid-Propellant, Water-Breathing Ramjet

“…The composition of the polyester used was determined by a chemical analysis to be approximately C 42 H 41 O 10 (see Table 1 in Ref. [16]). The different hydro-reactive, fuel-rich compositions examined in this work are listed in Table 2.…”

“…The different hydro-reactive, fuel-rich compositions examined in this work are listed in Table 2. Several static firing tests were conducted with each metallized composition, in addition to experiments with plain, non-metallized polymer (polyester) that we reported earlier [16]. There was a desire to also manufacture fuel grains containing 50% of hydro-reactive fuel components; however, it was challenging to properly mix such viscus compositions.…”

“…For optimal operation, an adapted nozzle is used, namely 𝑃 = 𝑃 , and the thrust equation obtains the form: The calculation of the theoretical specific impulse for the different fuel compositions listed above in Table 2 was completed with the aid of the Computer Program for Calculation of Complex Chemical Equilibrium Compositions and Applications (CEA) [18] for oxidizer to fuel mass ratios (O/F) in the range of 0.5-3 and water-propellant mass ratios (W/P) in the range of 0-3, according to the method presented in length in Ref. [16] (in the Theoretical Model section). The governing equation used in this method is derived from the following equation that yields the thrust produced by the ramjet:…”

“…The experimental method used in this work was identical to that used and described in Ref. [16] (in the Experimental Setup section), including dimensions, measuring methods, gauges, time sequence, etc. ; however, the fuel grains used for this investigation were slightly shorter, 95-190 mm, because of the higher density of the fuel due to the increased density of the hydro-reactive fuel particles.…”

“…Works performed in the field have mainly focused on different aspects of solidpropellant, water-breathing ramjets, such as evaluating optimal operating conditions and maximal theoretical performance [7][8][9][10][11], combustion properties of different propellants and fuels tailored for a water-breathing operation [1][2][3][4][5], and static firing tests [12,13] as well as other aspects [14]. Previous research conducted by these authors [15,16] suggested considering the use of a ducted, hybrid, ram-rocket-based water-breathing ramjet. The hybrid motor employs a propellant consisting of an oxidizer and fuel stored at different phases, typically liquid oxidizer and solid fuel.…”