Aerospace Propulsion II

III YEAR II SEMISTER

DEPARTMENT OF AERONAUTICAL ENGINEERING
INSTITUTE OF AERONAUTICAL ENGINEERING
Prepared by
C.Sandeep
Assistant professor
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Operational Envelopes
Each engine type will operate only within a certain range of altitudes and Mach numbers
(velocities).
The approximate velocity and altitude limits, or corridor of flight, within which airlift
vehicles can operate. The corridor is bounded by a lift limit, a temperature limit, and an
aerodynamic force limit.

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Air Breathing Propulsion

• Air breathing propulsion systems use oxygen in atmospheric air to

burn fuel stored on the vehicle
• Turbojet
• Turbofan (High BR, Low BR, Afterburning)
• Turboprop
• RAMJETS
• SCRAMJETS

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Air Breathing Propulsion: Gas Turbine
Systems
Gas Generator

• The basis of turbojet, turbofan, and

turboprop propulsion is the gas generator
• Supplies high-temperature, high-pressure
gas
• Stand alone, most of the energy of this
device is used to drive turbines
• Turbine rotational energy is converted
into electricity

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Air Breathing Propulsion
Turbojet
By adding an inlet and a nozzle a turbojet can be constructed
• Gas generator still supplies high-temperature,
high-pressure gas
• Some of the energy of this device is used to
drive turbines and auxiliary systems
• Most of the energy in the high-temperature,
high-pressure gas is allowed to flow to the
nozzle
• Nozzle accelerates flow to high velocity to
impart thrust
Propulsive Efficiency
A measure of how effectively engine power is used to propel aircraft 9
Air Breathing Propulsion

Propulsive Efficiency
• A measure of how effectively engine power is used to propel aircraft

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Air Breathing Propulsion: Gas Turbine
Systems

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Air Breathing Propulsion: Gas Turbine
Systems

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Air Breathing Propulsion: Gas Turbine
Systems

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Air Breathing Propulsion: Gas Turbine
Systems

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Air Breathing Propulsion: Ducted Systems

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Air Breathing Propulsion: Ducted Systems

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Air Breathing Propulsion: Ducted Systems

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Air Breathing Propulsion: Ducted Systems

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Rocket Propulsion

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Rocket Propulsion

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Rocket Propulsion: Chemical Rocket
Propulsion

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Rocket Propulsion: Chemical Rocket
Propulsion

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Rocket Propulsion: Chemical Rocket
Propulsion

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Rocket Propulsion: Chemical Rocket
Propulsion
Liquid Fuel Rocket Propulsion Devices

The system here depicts a gas pressure

fed liquid bi-propellant system
These are adequate and quite common
on low-thrust systems:
• Attitude control thrusters
•Micro-thrusters

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Rocket Propulsion: Chemical Rocket
Propulsion
Liquid Fuel Rocket Propulsion Devices

• Launch systems, however, consume

massive amounts of fuel/oxidizer
• High mass flow delivery to thrust
chamber required
• Turbo-pumps are normally required for
these high-thrust systems

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Rocket Propulsion: Chemical Rocket
Propulsion
Solid Fuel Rocket Propulsion Devices

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Rocket Propulsion: Chemical Rocket
Propulsion
Liquid Fuel Rocket Propulsion Devices

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Rocket Propulsion: Chemical Rocket
Propulsion

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Rocket Propulsion: Chemical Rocket
Propulsion

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Rocket Propulsion: Chemical Rocket
Propulsion

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Rocket Propulsion: Non-chemical Rockets

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 TRANS-ATMOSPHERIC AND SPACE FLIGHT
MISSION PROPULSION
REQUIREMENTSPROPULSION
SYSTEMS- CLASSIFICATION, PERFORMANCE
CHARACTERISTICS

Unit 1

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Syllabus
• Hypersonic transport vehicles, military missiles, space launch vehicles,
spacecraft- role, types, missions profile, trajectories, operating
conditions- gravity, atmosphere. Incremental flight velocity budget for
climb out and acceleration, orbital injection- Breguet equation for
cruise– mission propulsion requirements- thrust levels, burnig time,
economy.
• High speed propulsion systems- types, construction, operating
principles- sources of energy, generation of power, momentum,
propellants,- applications, performance parameters- specific thrust,
specific impulse, internal efficiency, propulsive efficiency- typical
values. Reaction control systems- applications

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Hypersonic Transport Vehicles
• A Hypersonic Vehicle is a vehicle that travels at least 4 times faster than
the speed-of-sound, or greater than Mach 4.
• A hypersonic vehicle can be an airplane, missile, or spacecraft. Some
hypersonic vehicles have a special type of jet engine called a Supersonic
Combustion Ramjet or scramjet to fly through the atmosphere. Sometimes,
a hypersonic plane uses a rocket engine.
• A Re-entry Vehicle is another type of Hypersonic Vehicle. A Re-entry
Vehicle is a spacecraft that travels through space and re-enters the
atmosphere of a planet, and most of the time, does not have an engine.

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 Chapter 2
AIR BREATHING ENINES FOR HYPERSONIC TRANSPORT PLANES AND
MILITARYMISSILES- SUPERSONIC COMBUSTION- THE SCRAM-JET ENGINE
Performance of turbojets, ramjets at high speeds- limitations. Need for supersonic
combustion- implications criticality of efficient diffusion and acceleration, problems of
combustion in high speed flow.
The scramjet engine- construction, flow process- description, control volume analysis-
spill-over drag, plume drag. Component performance analysis- isolator, combustor-
flow detachment and reattachment, thermal throat, scheduled, distributed fuel
injection. Nozzle flow, losses- failure to recombination, viscous losses,plume losses.
Scramjet performance, applications.
Combined cycle engines- turbo-ramjet, air turbo-rocket (ATR), ejector ramjet- Liquid-
air collection engine(LACE)- need, principle, construction, operation, performance,
applications to hypersonic transport plane and missile propulsion

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 AIR BREATHING PROPULSION
Propulsive device

 generates the net thrust to overcome inertia and gains speed

Air breathing propulsive device

 uses oxygen in air to burn fuel and to generate thrust

 limited to dense atmosphere up to a height of about 100 km
 only jet propulsion presented in this seminar

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Turbojet
 Engines with rotating machinery
 Used by most civil and military aircrafts operating at subsonic
speeds ( Mach <1 )
 General Electric , Pratt & Whitney , Rolls Royce
Ramjet
 Engines without rotating machinery
 Used for supersonic missiles up to Mach 5
 Soviet SA-6 ,British Sea Dart , French Snecma M-88
Scramjet
 Engines devoid of rotating machinery
 Will be used for hypersonic missiles above Mach 5
 Nasa X-43 , British HOTOL , German Sanger

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TURBOJET
 Air sucked in through the inlet diffuser
 Compressed and used to burn the fuel in the combustor
 Combustion products used to drive the turbine
 Exhaust through the nozzle to generate jet propulsion

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LIMITATIONS

At higher Mach numbers

 Fuel consumption increases
 Moving parts do not contribute to engine power
° Share of compressor at Mach 1 = 50 %
Mach 2 = 15 %
Mach 3 = 04 %
 Moving parts causes losses
 High temperatures (around 3000 K) are produced
 Compressor blades cannot withstand that temperature
 No such high temperature withstanding blade material exists
 Compression created by speed is enough to keep engine process

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 RAMJET
 At speeds
above Mach
3 a passive
intake can
compress the
air due to
ramming
effect
(without use
of
compressor )
for subsonic
combustion
in the
combustion
chamber

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 Mach number decreased and point b kept constant
 TSFC becomes high
 Larger size of engine
 heat added increased and point d kept constant
 increase in maximum temperature

 material properties of engine walls

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PERFORMANCE

Experimental Conditions
Inlet temp = 220 K
Cp = 0.24 kcal/kg-k
γ = 1.4

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FUELS USED

 Gaseous Fuel Ramjet

* eg. hydrogen
 Liquid Fuel Ramjet
* kerosene , synthetic hydrocarbon fuel
eg. US made RJ1, RJ4 ; French CSD07T , CSD15T
 Solid Fuel Ramjet
* polymers loaded with metal particles like Mg ,Al or B
eg. Polyether , polyester , polyurethane

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ADVANTAGES
 Able to attain high speeds up to mach 5
 No moving parts so less wear & tear and minimum losses
 Reduced weight and smaller engine
 Lighter and simpler than turbojet
 Higher temperatures can be employed

DISADVANTAGES
 Bad performance at lower speeds
 Needs booster to accelerate it to a speed where ramjet begins to
produce thrust
 Higher fuel consumption
 Maximum operating altitude is limited
 High temperature material required

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APPLICATIONS
USSR
 SA -4 Ganef surface to air missile
propelled by 4 booster rockets & one liquid fuel ramjet
Range 50 km Mach 2.5 at altitude 1.1 to 24 km
 SA –6 Gainful surface to air missile
solid propellant booster propels it to Mach 1.5
ramjet propels it to Mach 2.8 . Range 60 km
USA
 ASALM
liquid fuel ramjet ; reaches Mach 4 at 30 km height
 YAQM127A
used by Navy ; Mach 2.5 capability Range of 100 km

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SCRAMJET
 Supersonic Combustion RAMJET
 In ramjet supersonic speed of air is reduced to subsonic speeds in
combustion chamber thereby causing high temperature rise.
 If combustion is done at supersonic speed temperature rise could be
avoided.
 Achieving supersonic combustion is the ultimate challenge
Dwell time in the combustor is low

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SUPERSONIC COMBUSTION

Major Issues
# Proper mixing
# Ignition
# Stable combustion

 Flight Mach no. is 6 to 10 Inlet Mach no. is 2 to 4

 Blockage caused by injection and heat release generates a “shock train”
 intense mixing and combustion with large gradients in flow properties
& chemical composition in the axial,radial and circumferential directions
 Divergent combustor adds to proper mixing and ignition and to
compensate for the pressure rise 48
Comparison between turbojet,ramjet,scramjet and rocket

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HYPERSONIC COMBUSTION
 Occurs when flight Mach nos. are 20 and above and when
combustor inlet Mach nos. become greater than 5
 Kinetic energy of free stream air entering scramjet is large
compared to the energy released by fuel combustion
 At Mach 25 heat release from combustion is 10 % of enthalpy of
gases while at Mach 8 it is 50 %.
 Flow deflections due to heat release is small and it eliminates the
possibility of strong shock formation

* Effect of turbulence generation and mixing at hypersonic speeds

* Behavior of fuel-air mixing when air velocity exceeds fuel
injection velocity

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Jet Engine Performance
• It is seen that engine thrust is proportional to the mass flow rate through the
engine and to the excess of the jet velocity over the flight velocity.
• The specific thrust of an engine is defined as the ratio of the engine thrust to its
mass flow rate. The specific thrust is

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• Because the engine mass flow rate is proportional to its exit area, A5/m depends
only on design nozzle exit conditions.
• As a consequence, F/m is independent of mass flow rate and depends only on
flight velocity and altitude.
• Assigning an engine design thrust then determines the required engine-mass flow
rate and nozzle exit area and thus the engine diameter. Thus the specific thrust,
F/m, is an important engine design parameter for scaling engine size with
required thrust at given flight conditions.
• Another important engine design parameter is the thrust specific fuel
consumption, TSFC, the ratio of the mass rate of fuel consumption to the engine
thrust

• Low values of TSFC, of course, are favorable. The distance an aircraft can fly
without refueling, called its range, is inversely proportional to the TSFC of its
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engines.
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Performance of Ramjet Engines
Ramjet Engine Thermodynamic cycle

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Performance Parameters
• Parameters
• Thrust: Ramjet engine thrust is defined as the net change in total
momentum as the working fluid passes through the engine. The
general expression for thrust,

F = ṁ(C4-C1) + Ae.(Pe-Pa)

where Pe and Pa are the engine exit and ambient static pressures
respectively

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• The general thrust equation may be modified to include fuel mass
flow and then may be rearranged by substituting the mass flow term
from the continuity condition,

• Where, , f=fuel/air ratio, and A1= Area of free stream air

entering the engine

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Specific thrust may be written as :

• For a reasonable positive value of specific thrust to be achieved,

Either Ve>Va i.e. substantial acceleration through the engine needs to
be accomplished,
• or pe>pa i.e a substantial pressure (static) residual (at exit face) inside
the engine are required to be achieved.

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Design of a Ramjet
• Design of a ramjet engine and performance prediction involves
estimation of pressures, temperatures, velocities and flow areas at
the critical stations through the engine.
• Even though various analytical CFD techniques, including those
incorporating reactive flow, have now come into use, it is still practical
to start with an one-dimensional (constant flow properties across any
passage area at any station) fluid flow theories.
• CFD techniques require a first cut geometry.
• Deviations from the one-dimensional flow may be corrected for with
empirical correlations.
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(1) Varying specific heat method

(2) Average specific method

(3) Arbitrary and/or constant specific heat method

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Comparative discussion for design of an
engine
• Comparison of these methods has shown that in a subsonic flow
arbitrary specific heat method is useful for engineering
approximations.
• But at supersonic flow conditions only the first two methods should
be used for results within acceptable limits.
• Thus in a ramjet (or scramjet), where major portion of the flow is
supersonic, last two methods can provide only approximate
estimates.
• More accurate estimates shall require use of the first method in a
scramjet.
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• Under ‘design point’ flow condition accurate analysis is desirable to
arrive at or optimize the engine internal flow path geometry.
• On the other hand “off-design point” flow analysis is carried out with
engine geometry already available.
• But a number of flow parameters may be unknown variables,
requiring simpler approach at the initial stages of analysis, to be
followed later on with more rigorous estimations (e.g. CFD).

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Need for supersonic combustion-

• Supersonic combustion air-breathing engines have long been recognized as

the most well-suited for hypersonic propulsion in the Mach 5-10 range.
• Designs for hypersonic engines have been around since the early 1900’s.
• Ramjet technology has been developing over the past eight decades and,
except for marginal improvements, has been shown to be suited for
atmospheric flight speeds up to Mach 5.
• The desire for faster, more efficient engines gave birth to the idea of a
scramjet, utilizing supersonic combustion and potentially expanding the
speed envelope to the Mach 15 range.
• The promise of covering the entire planet at high speed from horizontal
takeoff for both civil and military aircraft is an attractive prospect.

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Implications criticality of efficient diffusion and
acceleration, problems of combustion in high
speed flow
• Although the concept of scramjet engines appears simple, supersonic
combustion remains a complex field of study.
• Chemical kinetics, temperature, pressure, equivalence ratio, mixing rate
and stream velocity all affect the combustion process.
• As it stands, supersonic combustion is very difficult to maintain and
continues to be a formidable task.
• The ignition delay time of a fuel-air mixture continues to be the limiting
factor for all scramjet engine designs. Decreasing the delay time allows for
shorter combustors and/or higher flight velocities.
• Initially, the ignition delay time of a fuel is fixed for a given set of conditions
and the type of fuel. Increasing the temperature of the fuel and/or air
stream reduces this time.

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• Pressure plays a somewhat more complex role. Increasing the pressure, usually,
but not always, improves the combustion conditions. Increasing pressure usually
reduces the ignition delay time, but there exists a critical value of pressure, above
which, the delay time increases dramatically, followed by a slow decrease.
• Therefore, it is not always advantageous to increase the pressure. The
equivalence ratio does not strongly affect the ignition delay time, except for
equivalence ratios below 0.3, where the delay time increases sharply. Therefore,
these effects need to be considered in designs.

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Proposed Solutions to Supersonic Combustion
Difficulties
• Improved schemes for injection patterns have been designed and
studied to overcome the obstacles of inadequate fuel penetration and
mixing.
• In addition, the problem of ignition and flame holding can be handled
in one of two ways; injecting combustion enhancing radicals by use of
a plasma torch can reduce the induction time of the mixture or
recirculation zones can be created using aerodynamic bodies such as
wedges, ramps or cavities to slow down the flow and provide an
environment where combustion can occur.
• A combination of these methods can also be used.

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• Throughout the recent decades, scramjet developers have overcome
problems with material capabilities, ignition, flame holding and
internal drag, to name a few.

• Fuel Injection
• Recessed Cavity Flameholders
• Ramps and Wedges
• Plasma Torches

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The Scramjet Engine

• The definition of a ramjet engine is first necessary, as a scramjet

engine is a direct descendant of a ramjet engine.

Schematic diagram of a ramjet engine

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Schematic diagram of a scramjet engine

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Hyper-X flight trajectory 78
SCRAMJET PERFORMANCE ANALYSIS
• The performance of a scramjet engine, either uninstalled or when integrated on a
hypersonic vehicle, is most easily determined by what is called stream thrust
analysis.
• This technique conserves the fluxes of mass, momentum and energy on
strategically placed control volumes to determine the propulsive forces on the
vehicle.
• Figure shows a schematic of a scramjet powered vehicle with a control volume
surrounding all the airflow that passes through the engine.
• Airflow enters the control volume at the flight conditions, fuel is added to the air
in the combustor and the flow exits through the vehicle nozzle. For ease of
analysis, the flow exiting the control volume is usually represented by a flux-
conserved onedimensional average of the non-uniform exhaust plume. In the
current analysis only the axial forces will be considered, however, similar relations
can be developed for the transverse direction to determine the lift forces
generated by the propulsion system.
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Schematic of control volume used for scramjet performance analysis

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• Assuming for simplicity that fuel is added with no component of velocity in the streamwise
direction, application of Newtons law to the control volume in Fig. in the streamwise direction
yields the following relation:
•

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• Equation 3 indicates that the uninstalled thrust of an engine can be determined with
knowledge of the stream thrust of the air entering the engine, the addative drag, and
the stream thrust exiting the engine nozzle.
• The flow enters the engine at ambient conditions and at the flight velocity, so
determination of Fin reduces to a determination of the freestream capture area.
• Air spillage (and therefore spillage drag) decreases as the vehicle speed approaches
the design point, and the plume drag varies depending on the amount of under-
expansion in the nozzle.
• Both these are usually estimated through CFD analysis, or through rules-of-thumb
based on empirical or experimental databases. Determination of Fex requires an
involved analysis that follows the air through the complete scramjet flowpath.
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Component Analysis

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• The different parts of a scramjet engine: air inlet, isolator, combustor and nozzle.
• The scramjet engine must be integrated with the fuselage of the aircraft, specially
the air inlet and the nozzle.
• Part of the forebody aircraft fuselage makes the function of air inlet compressing
the freestream air, and similarly, the aftbody acts as a nozzle expanding the gases
from the combustion.
• The flow path through a scramjet engine follows a Brayton thermodynamic cycle.
The air is compressed, after that combustion takes place to increase the flow
temperature and pressure, and finally, the products from the combustion are
expanded.

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Air inlet
• The air inlet can be considered as a diffuser in which takes place the
compression of the freestream air gathered. This compression is achieved by
successive shock waves.
• For an oblique shock wave, the flow is always deflected towards the shock wave,
and the flow properties vary as

• Here the subscript 1 and 2 corresponds respectively just before and just after the
shock wave.

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• Therefore, at the exit of the air inlet, the supersonic freestream air has reduced
its velocity and has raised its static temperature and pressure. Furthermore, the
total temperature through the air inlet is constant and the total pressure changes

• The subscript 0 represents freestream conditions before forebody compression.

• The performance of the air inlet compression can be separated into two key
parameters: capability, or how much compression is performed, and efficiency, or
what level of flow losses does the inlet generate during the compression process.
• A common parameter used to quantify the efficiency of the forebody/inlet
compression is the kinetic energy efficiency.

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• The definition is the ratio of the kinetic energy the compressed flow
would achieve if it were expanded isentropically to freestream
pressure, relative to the kinetic energy of the freestream.

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Isolator
• At flight speeds below Mach 8, combustion in a scramjet engine can generate a
large local pressure rise and separation of the boundary layer on the surfaces of
the combustion duct. This separation, which can feed upstream of fuel injection,
acts to further diffuse the core flow in the duct, and will affect the operation of
the inlet, possibly causing an unstart of the engine.
• The method use to alleviate this problem is the installation of a short duct
between the inlet and the combustor known as an isolator.
• In some engines (those which operate in the lower hypersonic regime between
Mach 4 and 8) the combination of the diffusion in the isolator and heat release in
the combustion decelerate the core flow to subsonic conditions, in what is called
dual-mode combustion.
• At speeds above Mach 8 the increased kinetic energy of the airflow through the
engine means that the combustion generated pressure rise is not strong enough
to cause boundary layer separation. Flow remains attached and supersonic
throughout, and this is termed pure scramjet. In this case an isolator is not
necessary.
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Schematic of flow structure in an isolator

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• The structure of the supersonic flow in confined ducts under the influence of a
strong adverse pressure gradient is of interest in the design of scramjet isolators.
• As shown in Figure, a pressure gradient is imposed on the incoming supersonic
flow, and with the presence of a boundary layer, a series of crossing oblique
shocks are generated. This phenomenon, known as pseudo shock or shock-train,
is characterized by a region of separated flow next to the wall, together with a
supersonic core that experiences a pressure gradient due to the area restriction
of the separation and forms the series of oblique shocks mentioned before.
• Finally, the flow reattaches at some point and mixes out to conditions that match
the imposed back-pressure. Being able to predict the length scale of this flow
structure is the key component of isolator design for dual-mode scramjets.

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Combustor
• The combustor chamber is a duct where the combustion between freestream air
and fuel takes place. This combustion is supersonic, so there are some aspects
that require more attention on the contrary of the conventional combustion.
• At very high velocities, a properly fuel injection and mixing could be a problem, as
well as flame holding. That is why over the past decades a lot of different
configurations have been studied and developed.
• Some techniques used today for fuel injection in scramjet engines are: wall,
ramp, strut, pylon and pulsed injectors. And for keeping the combustion, there is
a technique quite used called cavity flame holders.

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• Another significant aspect to take into account is the dissociation. At the entrance
of the combustor the flow static temperature and pressure are very high, and
with the heat release due to chemical reactions, the temperature and pressure
could reach extremely high values which involve dissociation of combustion
products.
• Because of the heat addition, the velocity or Mach number decreases while the
static temperature and pressure increases.
• The total temperature is raised and the total pressure is reduced. The total
pressure loss is proportional to the square of Mach number; hence, it is better to
have a small combustor inlet Mach number, on the contrary for the dissociation
phenomenon.

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Nozzle
• The nozzle is a divergent duct that accelerates the supersonic flow and at the
same time expands it reducing its static temperature and pressure.
• The expansion process converts the potential energy of the combusting flow to
kinetic energy and then it results in thrust. An ideal expansion nozzle would
expand the engine plume isentropically to the freestream pressure assuming
chemical equilibrium.
• Nevertheless, loss mechanisms are present in real expansion processes and are
due to under-expansion, failure to recombine dissociated species, flow angularity
and viscous losses.
• The weight of a fully-expanded nozzle would be prohibitive at most hypersonic
flight conditions; hence under-expansion losses are usually traded against vehicle
structural weight.

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• Dissociation losses result from chemical freezing in the rapid expansion process in
the nozzle, essentially locking up energy that cannot be converted to thrust.
• Flow angularity losses are product of varying flow conditions in the nozzle, and
viscous losses are associated with friction on the nozzle surfaces.
• The flow enters the nozzle in a highly reactive state. As it expands to lower
pressure and temperature, chemical reactions will occur toward the completion
of combustion, with consequent additional heat release.
• If the expansion is slow enough chemical equilibrium is approached, but in most
cases, due to the high velocities reached in a scramjet, the flow composition
freezes and becomes fixed.
• Two limiting cases can be treated fairly easily: equilibrium flow, where
equilibrium is maintained through all nozzle length, and frozen flow, where the
flow doesn’t change its composition from the combustor exit. The true situation
lies between these two cases.
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• The choice of combustor inlet Mach number is a key aspect for the performance
of the scramjet and it is related to the nozzle expansion.
• If the static temperature at the combustor entrance is too high, dissociation will
be present and then chemical energy is not available as thermal energy for
conversion to kinetic energy in the nozzle.
• So, the question to be dealt with quantitatively is then what static temperature,
or what combustor inlet Mach number, is best for any given flight Mach number.
• The existence of such an optimum M3, which depends on finite chemical reaction
rates, can be seen by comparison of the specific impulse for two limiting cases:
one which chemical equilibrium is assumed throughout the flow, and another in
which the flow is assumed to be in equilibrium up to the combustor exit but
frozen at that composition during the nozzle expansion.

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• As it can be seen in Figure, for equilibrium
nozzle flow there is no optimum M3, the
specific impulse increases continuously as M3
decreases.
• This is not surprising, because for equilibrium
flow the chemical energy invested in
dissociation is recovered as thermal energy
and then kinetic energy as recombination
occurs in the nozzle, and the lower the
combustor Mach number the lower the
entropy increase in the combustor.
Therefore, independently on the flight Mach
number interests a low combustor inlet Mach Specific impulse for equilibrium nozzle
number. flow (combustor pressure fixed at 1 atm)

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• In contrast, for frozen nozzle flow, there is
a clear optimum M3 for flight Mach
numbers above about 10. It is defined by
the envelope, drawn as a dashed line. The
optimum value of M3 depends on the
extent to which recombination occurs in
the nozzle, as well as on the degree of
dissociation at the combustor exit. For a
very high flight Mach number, if the flow is
decelerated to a very low M3, the total
pressure loss will be small but then losses
of dissociation will be too high, and in the
opposite case, if the flow is slowed to a
relative high M3, dissociation losses will be
small but the total pressure loss will be
very elevated. So, balancing each term it
can be found an optimum combustor inlet Specific impulse for frozen nozzle flow
Mach number. (combustor pressure fixed at 1 atm)
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Engine issues for hypersonic airbreathing propulsion systems

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Scramjet applications
• The “holy grail” of hypersonic airbreathing propulsion is its use as part of a
system for reaching low earth orbit, either for satellites insertion or manned
operations.
• At the current stage of scramjet technology development, single-stage-to-orbit
systems are not viable, however many multi-stage options have been studied.
• Turbojets are a propulsion candidate for the initial phase of a flight to LEO, but
are currently limited to Mach 3+. Scramjets are a desirable candidate for the
middle phase, particularly if the upper limit of their operation can be stretched to
Mach 10+. However, scramjet use in conjunction with turbojets is problematic, as
the take-over Mach number of a scramjet designed to operate at Mach 10 and
above is likely to be Mach 5-6, in the absence of significant variable geometry.

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• An efficient liquid fuelled rocket is a desirable candidate for the last phase to LEO.
An example of a possible system for acceleration to low earth orbit is described
here, based on a rocket scramjet- rocket three-stage vehicle design to lift
approximately 100 kg to LEO.
• The first stage is a solid rocket, chosen for its simplicity of operation, despite its
low efficiency.
• The second stage is a scramjet powered hypersonic vehicle with an initial mass of
3000 kg that can operate between Mach 6 and 12.
• This is followed by a liquid fuelled rocket third stage to boost the payload to LEO.

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Scramjet applications
• ISRO currently uses rocket launch vehicles like the PSLV to deliver satellites into
orbit.
• PSLVs are expendable, meaning that can only be used once, and are designed to
carry both fuel and oxidizer with for launch.
• Scramjets use ambient air to burn fuel, thus saving the need to carry an oxidizer –
thus increasing the payload of a craft.
• ISRO claims that using Avatar for satellite launches will cut down launch costs by
half. Since there are no rotating parts in a scramjet, the chances of failure are also
measurably reduced.

102
Total Temperature Rise with Increasing Mach Number in Trans-atmospheric Flight
103
104
Combined cycle engines

• Hypersonic propulsion systems can be categorized as liquid- and solid-fueled

rockets, turbojets, ramjets, ducted rockets, scramjets, and the dual-combustion
ramjet (DCR ). All existing hypersonic systems use either liquid or solid rockets as
their propulsion system.
• Ramjets and scramjets can operate efficiently at supersonic and hypersonic
speeds, but there tend to be limitations to the range of Mach numbers over
which they can operate.
• For instance, the need to have sufficient compression in the inlet ordinarily
requires that the ramjet engine operate supersonically. The inefficiencies of
slowing the flow down to subsonic speeds makes the ramjet difficult to use for
speeds exceeding Mach 5.

105
• Scramjets can be used above approximately Mach 5 but below that there is in
general insufficient energy in the captured airstream to enable efficient
combustion in the supersonic combustor.
• Both the ramjet and scramjet must be coupled with some additional form of
propulsion (for missiles, this is chiefly a rocket) to accelerate the vehicle to its
“take-over” Mach number.
• To overcome these limitations, combined cycle engines have been developed.

106
Engine cycles for hypersonic vehicles

107
• A subsequent version of the X-43B has had to be fully multi-use, and its main
objective was to test the hybrid power plant type RBCC (rocket-based-combined-
cycle), TBCC (turbine-based-combined cycle) and AAR (air-augmented rocket).
• The engine type is TBCC turbines placed separately over a high-speed ram and
part has its own entrance channel and nozzle. Most comprehensive and most
complex the engine AAR.
• He has all kinds of drive concentrated in a single flow channel. During take-off of
the rocket engine flows into the combustion chamber, additional fuel in excess of
oxygen, thereby increasing the tension of almost 50%. After reaching a speed of
Mach 2, the rocket motor shuts down and re-activation occurs only in the
absence of atmospheric oxygen in orbit. Wiring engine AAR and the principle of
its operation is shown next slide. Rbcc engine is its principle similar to AAR, but
can operate in a wider speed range by changing the geometry of the engine. The
advantages of such a drive train are clear. After minimal adjustments feasible in
flight, can work in rocketry, Ramjet, maximum or jet mode.

108
109
Combined cycle engines- Turbo-Ramjet

• A simple combined cycle is a turbojet (or turbofan)/ramjet in which a secondary

flow bypasses the core turbojet and participates to produce thrust in an
afterburner.
• As the Mach number increases, typically beyond M = 3, the afterburner
transitions to operation as a ramjet while the turbojet maximum cycle
temperature is reduced to maintain an acceptable load on the rotating machinery
while maintaining the airflow path open to contribute to thrust generation in the
afterburner.
• The main issue in this configuration is, evidently, the matching of the core flow
with the bypass flow to avoid reversed flow on any of the sides. Additional
operational difficulties derive from the broad bypass ratio range during
acceleration and deceleration and the thermal management of the moving parts
during high enthalpy flight.
110
111
112
Air Turbo-Rocket (ATR)
• The Air-Turbo-Ramjet is an upgrade on the simplest form of the Turbine-Based-
Combined-Cycle Engine, the turbo-ramjet. The turbo-ramjet uses the best
performance features of the two systems in a hybrid configuration.
• In Fig. a it can be seen that the variable geometry (translating center body in this
case) inlet of a turbo-ramjet bi-furcates the inlet mass flow allowing some of the
flow to go into the turbojet, and the rest into the ramjet.
• The turbojet is located upstream of the ramjet (or more precisely, the turbojet is
contained inside of the ramjet). At low speeds the center body is extends further
upstream of the turbine, allowing more airflow to go into the turbojet than into
the ramjet.
• At higher supersonic speeds the center body is retracted, eventually closing of
the turbojet inlet and allowing all of the flow to go into the ramjet, bypassing the
entire turbojet.
113
• The Air-Turbo-Ramjet (Figure. b) provides enhanced performance over the turbo-
ramjet by avoiding the high temperatures and pressures associated with
conventional turbo-compression.
• The ATR powers the turbine in the system by the use of high temperature, fuel
rich gas generator.
• As a result the temperature remains unchanged since it is independent of inlet
Mach number and the resulting aerodynamic heating associated with it.
• The Air-Turbo-Rocket/Ramjet is a modification which has been made to integrate
rockets in the ATR congfiuration. The ATR-ramjet uses rockets as the main source
of gas generation.

114
Turbo-ramjet (a) and Air Turbo Ramjet (b) Combined Cycle Engines
115
Ejector Ramjet
• Ejector ramjet engines hold promise for several high-speed air vehicle
applications, from sounding rockets to "Aurora" type aircraft to space launch
booster aircraft.
• Another method of enhancing the performance of a rocket in the low speed
regime is thrust augmentation of the ejector rocket (see Fig. a).
• The ejector operates by producing static thrust in a duct open to the inlet air, and
as a result, creates flow into and over the ejector.
• This results in a pressure rise inside of the duct which can slow down the flow for
stable combustion.
• Downstream of the ejector, the rocket exhaust and the air stream is mixed.
Further down from the mixing location, fuel is added to the mixed flow, and the
flow is heated, creating more thrust and thus enhancing the overall performance.
116
• The flow must be choked, and thermal choking can be employed to avoid the
necessity of variable geometry in the nozzle and the complex problems
associated with it.
• The ejector rocket is a promising candidate for integration in an SSTO combined-
cycle engine because it can be easily integrated say in a scramjet in such
configurations as the ejector-scramjet (SERJ).

117
Figure : Ejector Rocket (a) and ERIDANUS (b) Combined Cycle Engines

118
Liquid-air collection engine(LACE)

• Another candidate for low-speed combined-cycle propulsion are engines

generally classified as cryo-cooled compression cycle engines. Technically these
engines are the so called `air-breather' rockets.
• The LACE engine has an advantage over the turbo-accelerator based combined
cycle engines in that it does not require the use of the entire turbo-accelerator
system, although they may employ a turbo compressor.
• The heat exchanger reduces the temperature (and pressure) of the incoming
airflow to burner entry conditions and resulting stable combustion.
• Thus it avoids the heavy machinery which is required to cool and compress flows
in turbo-accelerators. The most attractive feature of these devices is that they
attempt to enhance the performance (increasing specific impulse) by making use
of oxygen from the surrounding air during flight through the atmosphere, and
thus reducing the required weight of the entire vehicle.
119
• From Fig. a it can be seen that in the LACE cycle first liquefies the free-stream air
in a precooler, and then pumps the liquefied air in a turbopump, preparing it for
the high required pressures for heat addition in the combustion chamber.
• LACE engines also have physical limitations which make them not the best
candidates for SSTO propulsion in their purest form. LACE engines require
extremely high fuel consumption relative to other airbreathing engines, with
specific impulse limitations in the 800 to 1000 second range.
• Modifications of the LACE to enhance its performance include combining the
LACE cycle with the scramjet cycle (ScramLACE engine) Fig. b, or more modern
forms of the LACE engine includeing HOTOL's R545, or SKYLON's Synergetic Air-
breathing Rocket Engine. Each of these requires complex cooling systems, and
although are promising ideas, are extremely dependant on complicated heat
exchanger research, design, and development.

120
Figure : LACE (a) and ScramLACE (b) Combined Cycle Engines
121
122
123
Hypersonic missiles
Speed is the new stealth

124
Top 10 Cruise Missiles in the world

125
 Chapter 2
AIR BREATHING ENINES FOR HYPERSONIC TRANSPORT PLANES AND
MILITARYMISSILES- SUPERSONIC COMBUSTION- THE SCRAM-JET ENGINE
Combined cycle engines- turbo-ramjet, air turbo-rocket (ATR), ejector ramjet- Liquid-
air collection engine(LACE)- need, principle, construction, operation, performance,
applications to hypersonic transport plane and missile propulsion

126
 Chapter 3
CHEMICAL ROCKET ENGINES
Rocket propulsion- history, principles, types, applications. The rocket equation.
Vehicle velocity, jet exit velocity, mass ratio. Effect of atmosphere. Engine
parameters, propellants. Chemical rockets- the thrust chamber- processes-
combustion, expansion- propellants. Thermo-chemical analysis of combustion,
equilibrium energy balance, mass balance, combustion efficiency. Equilibrium
composition, recombination.
Nozzle expansion, performance, design parameters, analysis- non-equilibrium
expansion- frozen equilibrium, shifting equilibrium. One dimensional, two
dimensional flows, presence of liquid drops and solid particles- two phase flow,
losses, efficiency.
Performance measures of chemical rocket engines- thrust coefficient, specific
impulse; engine parameters thrust chamber pressure, temperature, characteristic
velocity, exhaust velocity, effective velocity. Computing rocket engine performance-
theoretical, delivered performance, performance at standard operating conditions,
guaranteed minimum performance.

127
128
History
• The mighty space rockets of today are the result of more than 2,000 years of
invention, experimentation, and discovery. First by observation and inspiration
and then by methodical research, the foundations for modern rocketry were laid.
• Building upon the experience of two millennia, new rockets will expand human
presence in space back to the Moon, to Mars and the asteroids, and beyond.
These new rockets will be versatile.
• They will support Earth orbital missions, such as the International Space Station,
and off-world missions millions of kilometers from home.
• Already, travel to the stars is possible. Robot spacecraft are on their way into
interstellar space as you read this. Someday, they will be followed by human
explorers.

129
What •Is Propulsion?
Initiating or changing the motion of a
body
• Translational (linear, moving faster or
slower)
• Rotational (turning about an axis)
• Space propulsion
• Rocket launches
• Controlling satellite motion
• Maneuvering spacecraft
• Jet propulsion
• Using the momentum of ejected mass
(propellant) to create a reaction force,
inducing motion
At one time it was believed that rockets could
not work in a vacuum -- they needed air to
push against!! 130
Jet Propulsion Classifications
• Air-Breathing Systems • Rocket Propulsion
• Also called duct propulsion. • Vehicle carries own fuel and
• Vehicle carries own fuel; oxidizer, or other expelled
surrounding air (an oxidizer) is propellant to generate thrust:
used for combustion and thrust • Can operate outside of the Earth’s
generation atmosphere
• Gas turbine engines on aircraft… • Launch vehicles, upper stages,
Earth orbiting satellites and
interplanetary spacecraft … or

131
 en.wikipedia.org

Space Propulsion Applications

• Launch Vehicles
• Ballistic Missiles
• Earth Orbiting Satellites
• Upper Stages
• Interplanetary Spacecraft www.army-technology.com
• Manned Spaceflight

www.britannica www.psrd.hawaii.edu
.com blog.wired.com
132
Space Propulsion Functions
• Primary propulsion
• Launch and ascent
• Maneuvering
• Orbit transfer, station keeping, trajectory correction www.ksc.nasa.gov
• Auxiliary propulsion
• Attitude control
• Reaction control
• Momentum management

133
www.nasm.si.edu
A Brief History of Rocketry
onenew.wordpress.com
• China (300 B.C.)
• Earliest recorded use of rockets Wan-Hu who tried to
• Black powder launch himself to the
moon by attaching 47
• Russia (early 1900’s) black powder rockets to
• Konstantin Tsiolkovsky a large wicker chair!
• Orbital mechanics, rocket equation
• United States (1920’s)
• Robert Goddard
• First liquid fueled rocket (1926)
• Germany (1940’s)
• Wernher von Braun
Dr. Goddard
• V-2
• Hermann Oberth

Prof. Tsiolkovsky
Dr. von Braun www.geocities.com 134
www.britannica.com
Space Propulsion System Classifications
Stored Gas Chemical Electric Advanced

• Electrothermal • Nuclear
• Electrostatic • Solar thermal
• Electrodynamic • Laser
• Antimatter

Solid Liquid Hybrid

Space propulsion systems

are classified by the type of
Pressure Fed Pump Fed energy source used.

Bipropellant Monopropellant

135
Stored Gas Propulsion
Propellant • Primary or auxiliary propulsion.
Gas Tank
• High pressure gas (propellant) is fed
Fill
P Pressure to low pressure nozzles through
Valve Gage pressure regulator.
High Pressure Isolation
Valve
• Release of gas through nozzles
(thrusters) generates thrust.
Filter
• Currently used for momentum
Pressure management of the Spitzer Space
Regulator telescope.
Low Pressure
Isolation • Propellants include nitrogen, helium,
Valve nitrous oxide, butane.
Thruster • Very simple in concept.

136
Chemical Propulsion •Classifications
Liquid Propellant
• Pump Fed
• Launch vehicles, large upper
stages
• Pressure Fed
• Smaller upper stages,
spacecraft
www.aerospaceweb.org • Monopropellant
• Fuel only
• Bipropellant
• Fuel & oxidizer
• Solid Propellant
• Launch vehicles, Space Shuttle,
spacecraft
en.wikivisual.com • Fuel/ox in solid binder
• Hybrid
• Solid fuel/liquid ox
• Sounding rockets

news.bbc.co.uk
137
Monopropellant Systems
Nitrogen or helium • Hydrazine fuel is most
common monopropellant.
• N2H4
Hydrazine
• Decomposed in thruster
Propellant
Tank
using catalyst to produce hot
gas for thrust.
• Older systems used hydrogen
Pressure peroxide before the
Fuel Fill Valve P
Gage
development of hydrazine
Isolation Valve catalysts.
Filter • Typically operate in
blowdown mode (pressurant
and fuel in common tank).

Thrusters

138
Monopropellant Systems

www.aerojet.com 139
Bipropellant Systems• A fuel and an oxidizer are fed to the
engine through an injector and
FUEL OX combust in the thrust chamber.
• Hypergolic: no igniter needed --
P P propellants react on contact in engine.
• Cryogenic propellants include LOX (-
423 ºF) and LH2 (-297 ºF).
Isolation Valves • Igniter required
• Storable propellants include kerosene
(RP-1), hydrazine, nitrogen tetroxide
Chamber
(N2O4), monomethylhydrazine (MMH)
Engine

Nozzle

140
Liquid Propellant Systems
• Pump fed systems
• Propellant delivered to engine using
turbopump
• Gas turbine drives centrifugal or axial
flow pumps
• Large, high thrust, long burn systems: H-1 Engine Turbopump
launch vehicles, space shuttle
• Different cycles developed. A 35’x15’x4.5’ (ave.
depth) backyard pool
holds about 18,000
gallons of water. How
quickly could the F-1
pump empty it?

F-1 engine turbopump: Ans: In 27

• 55,000 bhp turbine drive seconds!
• 15,471 gpm (RP-1)
• 24,811 gpm (LOX)
F-1 Engine Turbopump Photos history.nasa.gov 141
Rocket Engine Power Cycles
• Gas Generator Cycle
• Simplest
• Most common
• Small amount of fuel and oxidizer
fed to gas generator
• Gas generator combustion products
drive turbine
• Turbine powers fuel and oxidizer
www.aero.org/publicat pumps
ions/ • Turbine exhaust can be vented
crosslink/winter2004/0
3_sidebar3.html
through pipe/nozzle, or dumped
into nozzle
• Saturn V F-1 engine used gas
generator cycle
www.answers.com 142
Rocket Engine Power Cycles - cont
• Expander
• Fuel is heated by nozzle and
thrust chamber to increase
energy content
• Sufficient energy provided to
drive turbine
• Turbine exhaust is fed to injector
and burned in thrust chamber
www.aero.org/publication • Higher performance than gas
s/ generator cycle
crosslink/winter2004/03_s
idebar3.html
• Pratt-Whitney RL-10

science.nasa.gov
143
Rocket Engine Power Cycles - cont
• Staged Combustion
• Fuel and oxidizer burned in
www.rocketrelics.com preburners (fuel/ox rich)

• Combustion products drive

turbine
• Turbine exhaust fed to injector at
high pressure
• Used for high pressure engines
• Most complex, requires
www.aero.org/publicat sophisticated turbomachinery
ions/
crosslink/winter2004/0 • Not very common
3_sidebar3.html • SSME (2700 psia)

shuttle.msfc.nasa.gov 144
The Big Engines…

Main Engine
F-1 Engine Space Shuttle RD-170
Saturn V 374,000 lbs thrust (SL) 1.78 million lbs thrust (SL)
1.5 million lbs thrust (SL) LOX/H2 LOX/Kerosene
LOX/Kerosene www.aerospaceguide.net
www.flickr.com spaceflight.nasa.gov
145
Solid Propellant Motors
• Fuel and oxidizer are in solid binder.
• Single use -- no restart capability.
• Lower performance than liquid
systems, but much simpler.
• Applications include launch vehicles,
upper stages, and space vehicles.

www.aerospaceweb.org

www.propaneperformance.com www.nationalmuseum.af.mil 146

Hybrid Motors
• Combination liquid-solid
Oxidizer Tank propellant
• Solid fuel
• Liquid oxidizer
• Multi-start capability
Ox Control Valve • Terminate flow of oxidizer
• Fuels consist of rubber or plastic
base, and are inert.
Solid • Just about anything that
Propellant burns…
• Oxidizers include LO2, hydrogen
peroxide (N2O2) and nitrous
oxide (NO2)
Nozzle
• Shut-down/restart capability.

147
Rocket Performance Calculations
• Thrust & Specific Impulse
• Thrust is the amount of force
generated by the rocket. • Rocket Equation
• Specific impulse is a measure or m
engine performance (analogous V  gIsp ln m i
to miles per gallon) f
• Units are seconds g  9.8 m/s 2

m  mass of vehicle before burn

i

m  mass of vehicle after burn

f

m  mass of propellant for V

p

 m m i f
F
Isp 
w  V 

F  rocket thrust m mp i 1 e


gI sp


 
w  weight flowrate of propellant

Rocket equation assumes no losses (gravity effects, aerodynamic drag). Actually very
accurate for short burns in Earth orbit or in deep space!
148
Specific Impulse Comparison
• Stored gas • 60-179 sec
• Monopropellant hydrazine • 185-235 sec
• Solid rocket motors • 280-300 sec
• Hybrid rockets • 290-340 sec
• Storable bipropellants • 300-330 sec
• LOX/LH2 • 450 sec

Specific impulse depends on

many factors: altitude, nozzle
expansion ratio, mixture ratio
(bipropellants), combustion
temperature.

This thruster was used on the

Viking Lander. It has a specific 149
www.rocketrelics.com
impulse of about 225 seconds.
Mission Delta-V Requirements
Mission (duration) Delta-V (km/sec)

Earth surface to LEO 7.6

LEO to Earth Escape 3.2

LEO to Mars (0.7 yrs) 5.7

LEO to Neptune (29.9 yrs) 13.4

LEO to Neptune (5.0 yrs) 70

LEO to alpha-Centauri (50 yrs) 30,000

LEO = Low Earth orbit (approx. 274 km)

150
Propellant Calculation Exercise
• Determine the mass of propellant to send a 2500 kg
spacecraft from LEO to Mars (0.7 yr mission).
• Assume the 2500 kg includes the propellant on-board at the start
of the burn.
• Assume our engine has a specific impulse of 310 sec (typical of a
small bipropellant engine).
• Use the rocket equation:
 5700 
m  p 2500
1 e

9.8310 

 2117 kg

 


Most of our spacecraft is propellant! Only 383 kg is left for structure, etc! How
could we improve this?
151
Electric Propulsion

www-ssc.igpp.ucla.edu
• Classifications
• Electrothermal
• Electrostatic
• Electromagnetic
• Characteristics
• Very low thrust
• Very high Isp
• > 1000 sec
• Requires large amounts of power (kilowatts)

This image of a xenon ion engine, photographed through a

port of the vacuum chamber where it was being tested at
NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, shows the faint blue glow
of charged atoms being emitted from the engine. The ion
propulsion engine is the first non-chemical propulsion to be
used as the primary means of propelling a spacecraft.
152
Electrothermal Propulsion
• Electrical power is used to add energy to exhaust
products
• Resistojet
rocket.itsc.uah.edu • Catalytic decomposition of hydrazine is
augmented with high power electric heater
• 800 – 5,000 W
• Arcjet
• High voltage arc at nozzle throat adds
thermal energy to exhaust
• Various gaseous or vaporized propellants can
be used.
www.fathom.com

www.nasa.gov 153
www.waynesthisandthat.com
Electrostatic Propulsion
• Xenon Ion Thruster
• Xenon propellant
• Electrostatic forces are used to
accelerate charged particles to very
high velocities
• Xenon is ionized by electron
bombardment
www.plasma.inpe.br • Thermionic cathode
• Positively charged particles
accelerated by grid
• Electrons routed to second anode and
injected into beam to neutralize

aerospace.engin.umich.edu ESA’s SMART-1 uses a xenon ion propulsion system (XIPS) 154
Electromagnetic Propulsion
• Electromagnetic forces are used to accelerate a
plasma
• A gas consisting of positive ions, electrons
• 5000 – 9000 ºR
• Neutral beam is produced
• Higher thrust per unit area than electrostatic thruster
• Classifications
• Magnetoplasmadynamic
• Pulsed plasma
• Electric discharge creates plasam from solid
Telfon
• Hall effect
• Developed in Russia
www.nasa.gov • Flew on U.S. STEx mission (1998)
155
The Future
• Interplanetary travel will require advanced
forms of propulsion technology:
• Antimatter
• Nuclear fusion
• Non-rocket methods

156
Effect of atmosphere
• The development of thrust, and the effect of atmosphere, can be examined
through the derivation of the thrust equation, which relates the thrust of the
rocket to the actual exhaust velocity, the pressure in the combustion chamber
and the atmospheric pressure.

157
Fig. Forces in the combustion chamber and exit nozzle

158
Gas Flow through Nozzle
159
Static force due to atmospheric Pressure
160
Chemical rockets

• Chemical propulsion is propulsion in which

the thrust is provided by the product of a
chemical reaction, usually burning (or
oxidizing) a fuel. A chemical reaction
combines two or more kinds of chemicals and
makes a different chemical as a product. A
commonly used reaction is combining
hydrogen with oxygen to make water.
• The function of a chemical rocket engine
system is to generate thrust through
combustion by release of thermal energy
derived from the chemical energy of the
propellants.
• These combustion gases are ejected through a
nozzle at high velocity. 161
Chemical rockets- the thrust chamber-
processes- combustion, expansion-
propellants.
• The analysis is usually divided into two somewhat separate sets of calculations:
1. The combustion process
2. The nozzle gas expansion process

162
• The combustion process is the first part. It usually occurs in the combustion
chamber at essentially constant chamber pressure (isobaric) and the resulting
gases follow Dalton's law. The chemical reactions or the combustions occur very
rapidly. The chamber volume is assumed to be large enough and the residence
time in the chamber long enough for attaining chemical equilibrium in the
chamber.
• The nozzle gas expansion process constitutes the second set of calculations. The
fully reacted, equilibrated gas combustion products enter the nozzle and undergo
an adiabatic expansion in the nozzle. The entropy remains constant during a
reversible (isentropic) nozzle expansion, but in real nozzle flows it increases
slightly.

163
EXIT VELOCITY EQUATIONS
 1  1
   
  pe  
 2R   pe  

U e  2C pTo 2 1    T 1  
  p02     1M o 2   p02  
   
 1
 
QR   pe  

Ue  2 1  
M   p02  
 

• Key Assumptions
• Quantity of heat added at constant pressure
• Constant specific heats
• For high Ue (for all thermal rockets), desire:
• Propellants with low molecular weight, M
• Propellant mixtures with large QR/M
• High combustion chamber pressure, P02
164
TYPES OF COMBUSTION CHAMBERS
• Two Types of rockets
1. Liquid Rockets
• Mono-Propellant (single compound)
• Bi-Propellant (fuel and oxidizer)
2. Solid Rockets
• Nozzles may look similar for these two types, but combustion chamber
design quite different
• Goals same for each type:
1. Understand factors that govern combustion process
2. Choice of fuels for each of these options
3. Design of combustion chamber
• Sizing: Length, Area, Volume, residence time
4. Performance of the solid vs. liquid rocket thrust chambers

165
LIQUID COMBUSTION CHAMBER
OVERVIEW
Atomization/vaporization

Combustor Chamber zones

166
Sizing of contraction ratio

Variation of Static and Stagnation Pressure ratios and Mach number with contraction
ratio of γ = 1.2 Ac = Chamber Cross-sectional Area 167
PROPELLANTS: BASIC DEFINITIONS
• Propellant: general term to describe combustion materials (both oxidizer and fuel)

• Some liquid propellants are gases at atmospheric conditions

• Only when temperature is dropped sufficiently and material pressurized does propellant become a liquid
• Why do we have to do this?
• Called cryogenic - maintained in low temperature condition
• Common cryogenic propellants are liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen

• In contrast to many liquid propellants storable at room temperature conditions

• Storable liquid propellants easier to use, but don't provide as high Isp
• High reliability, Shuttle orbital maneuvering and re-entry

• Cryogenics add significant complexity to a rocket system, but extra Isp is worth it
• Venting system, special tanks, shrinkage, flexible joints, leakage, etc.

168
 Propellant also serves as coolant
• Propellants are often used to cool portions of the rocket (combustion
chamber and nozzle) prior to entering combustion chamber to be burned

Combustion chamber and portion of

nozzle are cooled with propellants

169
PROPELLANT WILL VARY WITH
CYCLE

170
COMMON LIQUID ROCKET FUELS
• Most Common Liquid
Oxidizers
• LOX
• Hydrogen Peroxide
• Nitric Acid
• Nitrogen Tetroxide
• Liquid Florine

• Most Common Liquid Fuels

• Hydrocarbon fuels (RP1,
kerosense, methane)
• Liquid hydrogen
• Hydrazine (also mono)
• Unsymmetrical
Dimethylhydrazine

171
Propellants: general comments
• Combustion temperature directly reflects chemical energy of reaction
• Using O2 and RP-1 produces higher temperature than O2 and H2
• This is because RP-1 contains more chemical energy than H2
• However, H2 has much lower molecular weight
• Result is that O2 and H2 produces highest exit velocity (except F2-H2)
• Additional H2 may be added, which actually raises exit velocity
• Maximum exhaust velocity is shifted away from stoichiometric value, in direction
of lower molecular weight

• Why use a propellant with high molecular weight?

• Exhaust velocity is not only criterion
• Also interested in high thrust
• Heavy propellants giver higher mass flow rate
• Velocity might be lower, but overall thrust might be increased
• This is an application dependent design trade-off

172
PROPELLANTS: GENERAL
COMMENTS
• RP-1 is an inexpensive fuel, but provides lower performance (similar to kerosene)

• Fluorine and LH2 produces highest temperature of any bi-propellant system

• Highly toxic and corrosive

• Hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) deteriorates at about 1% a year, so cannot be used for long
term missions.

• Hydrazine (N2H4), Florine (F2) and UDMH (unsymmetrical dimethylhydrazine) are good
propellants but highly toxic and flammable. Very dangerous to handle

• Nitrogen tetroxide (N2O4) is a very good oxidizer

• Easy to store and transport, but also very toxic, hazardous to skin contact and creates toxic cloud
(BFRC) in when exposed to atmosphere

173
PROPELLANTS: ADDITIVES
• Sometimes additives are mixed into propellants for:
• Lower molecular weight
• Improve cooling characteristics
• Rocket designs may be limited by temperature on turbine, combustion chamber, or
nozzle
• Lower freezing point (prevent propellant from freezing in space)
• Reduce corrosive effects
• Facilitate easier ignition
• Stabilize combustion

174
Mono-propellant system
• Monopropellant hydrazine thrusters for satellites, space probes and spacecraft
• Used for station-keeping (orbital correction) and small thrust level applications
• Launch vehicle roll control and upper stage orientation and precision maneuvers
(used on Ariane 5 launcher)

Examples of 0.1N Hydrazine mono-propellant thrusters, Isp~210 s

175
Why Mono-Propellants?
• Less complicated
• Only need 1 propellant
• Only need 1 set of drive turbines and pumps
• Less plumbing
• Easy to turn on and off, reliable
• Less dangerous, no chance of interaction of high pressure fuel and oxidizer
• Less costly to build and low maintenance

• Drawback is limited performance, Isp and thrust

• Mono-propellants
• Most common propellant in use today are Hydrazine (N2H4) and Hydrogen Peroxide (H2O2)
• Also useful with catalyst to decompose to produce heat and gas
• Storable for long periods of time
• Useful for short bursts of thrust
176
BI-PROPELLANT LIQUID ROCKET
SYSTEM
• Most liquid fuel rockets are bipropellant
• Most also require a spark or some other method of activation to ignite
• Mixtures of liquid oxygen (LO2) with hydrocarbons such as kerosene and RP1 or with
liquid hydrogen (LH2) are most typical
• These types of rockets produce enormous thrust due to massive amount of propellant
used
• Example: External tank on the space shuttle contains over 1 million pounds of LO2
and over 200,000 pounds of LH2

• Some work being done on Tri-Propellant Rockets

• These work in basically same way as bipropellant rockets
• Combine two fuels and one oxidizer to give a mixture of efficiency and thrust

177
ROCKET FUEL SELECTION GUIDE
• Desirable Physical Properties
• Low freezing point
• High specific gravity (dense propellant)
• Stability (with time)
• Heat transfer properties
• Pumping properties (low vapor pressure, low viscosity)
• Small variation in physical characteristics with temperature
• Ignition, combustion, and flame properties

• Performance of Propellants
• Economic Factors
• Physical Hazards (Explosion, Fire, Spills)
• Health Hazards
• Corrosion
178
BI-PROPELLANT LIQUID ROCKET

179
WHY DO LH2-LOX ROCKETS RUN
FUEL RICH?
• Desire high heating value, QR, and low molecular weight, M
• Running rocket fuel rich (or lean) will reduce QR
• However, if fuel is lighter in molecular weight than oxidizer, fuel rich will
reduce average molecular weight
• The overall ratio QR/M is increased
• “In many cases fuel-rich mixtures are burned, as it is found that the resultant
reduction in M more than offsets the accompanying reduction in QR”
• Also note that when dissociation is present, O/F ratio, much less than
stoichiometric for maximum specific impulse

180
Combustion Reactions and Analysis
• Mechanism of Combustion
• The chemical reaction equations presented here do not portray the actual mechanism of
combustion; they merely indicate the initial and final chemical compositions of a
reaction.
• In most cases the reactions involve a sequence of steps, leading from the reactants to
the products, the nature of which depends on the temperature, pressure, and other
conditions of combustion.
• Fuel molecules, for instance, may undergo thermal cracking, producing more numerous
and smaller fuel molecules and perhaps breaking the molecules down completely into
carbon and hydrogen atoms before oxidation is completed.
• In the case of solid fuels, combustion may be governed by the rate at which oxidizer
diffuses from the surrounding gases to the surface and by the release of combustible
gases near the surface.
• Combustion of solids may be enhanced by increasing the fuel surface area exposed to
the oxidizer by reducing fuel particle size.

181
• We know that, for combustion to occur, molecules of oxidizer must affiliate with
fuel molecules, an action enhanced by the three T’s of combustion: turbulence,
time, and temperature.
• Chemical reactions take place more rapidly at high temperatures but nevertheless
require finite time for completion.
• It is therefore important that burners be long enough to retain the fuel-air
mixture for a sufficiently long time so that combustion is completed before the
mixture leaves.
• Turbulence, or mixing, enhances the opportunities for contact of oxidizer and fuel
molecules and removal of products of combustion.

182
• A flame propagates at a given speed through a flammable mixture. It will
propagate upstream in a flow of a combustible mixture if its flame speed exceeds
the flow velocity.
• If a fixed flame front is to exist at a fixed location in a duct flow in which the
velocity of the combustion gas stream exceeds the propagation speed, some form
of flame stabilization is required. Otherwise the flame front is swept downstream
and flameout occurs.
• Stabilization may be achieved by using fixed flameholders (partial flow
obstructions that create local regions of separated flow in their bases where the
flame speed is greater than the local flow velocity) or by directing a portion of the
flow upstream to provide a low-speed region where stable combustion may
occur.
183
• Each combination of oxidizer and fuel has been seen to have a particular
stoichiometric oxidizer-fuel ratio for which the fuel is completely burned with a
minimum of oxidizer.
• It has also been pointed out that it is usually desirable to operate burners at
greater than the theoretical air-fuel ratio to assure complete combustion of the
fuel and that this is sometimes referred to as a lean mixture.
• Occasionally it may be desirable to have incomplete combustion, perhaps to
produce a stream of products in which carbon monoxide exists or to assure that
all the oxidizer in the mixture is consumed. In that case a burner is operated at
less than the stoichiometric air-fuel ratio with what is called a rich mixture.
• There are limits to the range of air-fuel ratios for which combustion will occur
called limits of flammability. Here the density of the mixture is important. The
limits of flammability around the stoichiometric A/F are reduced at low densities.
If combustion is to occur reliably in mixtures at low densities, it is necessary to
closely control the air-fuel ratio.
184
• Combustion Analysis of Solid Fuels
• In the determination of the air-fuel ratio and flue gas composition for the
combustion of solid fuels, it is important to account for the ash and moisture in
the fuel in the as-fired condition.
• In the following analyses, all of the elements of the reactants in the fuel and
oxidizer are assumed to be present in the flue gas products except for the ash,
which is assumed to fall as a solid or flow as molten slag to the furnace bottom.
• Nitrogen and oxygen are present in many solid fuels and should be accounted for
in predicting the flue gas composition.
• While both carbon monoxide and oxygen may be present in combustion products
at the same time because of imperfect mixing of combustibles and oxygen in
some instances, we will assume for prediction of the flue gas composition that
perfect mixing occurs such that no carbon monoxide is present when excess air is
supplied.
185
• Stoichiometric Reaction: A stoichiometric reaction is defined such that the only
products are carbon dioxide and water. The components on the left side of a
chemical reaction equation which are present before the reaction are called
reactants, while the components on the right side of the equation which are
present after the reaction are called products or exhaust.
• One kmole of a substance has a mass in kilograms equal in number to the
molecular mass (molar mass) of that substance. Mathematically, m = NM
[kmole] [kg/kmole], where: m = mass[kg], N = number of moles [kmole], M =
molecular mass[kg/kmole], 1 kmole = 6.02  1026 molecules.

186
 Examples
CH4 + 2O2 = CO2 + 2H2O
C + O2 = CO2

There are 2 moles of water in the 3 moles of combustion products, and therefore a mole
fraction of water in the combustion products of xwater = 2/3 = 0.667.
Similarly, xCarbon dioxide = 1/3 = 0.333 moles of CO2 in the products.
There are 44 mass units of CO2 in the 80 mass units of products for a mass fraction of CO2
in the products,

Likewise, the mass fraction of water in the products is 2(18)/80 = 0.45.

187
Combustion Efficiency
• Combustion efficiency is defied as the fraction of the fuel energy supplied which
is released in the combustion process.
• Combustion efficiency of liquid rocket engines can be divided into two parts
1. Vaporization Efficiency (ηc,*, vap)
2. Mixture Efficiency (ηc,*, mix)

188
Chemically Reacting Gas Mixtures
• The working fluids in engines are mixtures of gases. Depending on the problem
under consideration and the portion of the engine cycle in which it occurs
chemical reactions may:
(1) be so slow that they have a negligible effect on mixture composition (the
mixture composition is essentially “frozen”);
(2) be so rapid that the mixture state changes and the composition remains in
chemical equilibrium;
(3) be one of the rate-controlling processes that determine how the
composition of the mixture changes with time.

189
Chemical Equilibrium
• It is a good approximation for performance estimates in engines to regard the
burned gases produced by the combustion of fuel and air as in chemical
equilibrium.
• It means that the chemical reactions, by which individual species in the burned
gases react together, produce and remove each species at equal rates. No net
change in species composition results.

190
DISSOCIATION: GENERAL COMMENTS
Q: What does combustion products are dissociated mean?

A: Consider burning (combustion) of a hydrogen and oxygen

mixture

• In complete combustion we have: H  1 O  H O

2 2 2
2

• All reactants go into forming products

• In this case hydrogen and oxygen form water
• At high enough temperature products may further breakdown
• Reaction may proceed in reverse, H2O breaking down into H2
and O2
1
H 2  O2  H 2O  H 2  OH H  O2  O
2
191
DISSOCIATION: GENERAL COMMENTS
1
H 2  O2  H 2O  H 2  OH H  O2  O
2
• Think about terms , , , ,  as a ‘wasted energy opportunity’

• Instead of liberating all chemical energy of reaction into just water,

some of it is subsequently ‘wasted’ by using high T energy to form
other products

• Highest Ue and Isp will always be achieved with no dissociation

• Never occurs at operating T of actual rockets
• Must deal with dissociation of products

• Also note, left side of equation still has stoichiometric ratio of O/F
• Ratio is not best one to use when dissociation occurs (lower side)
192
NOZZLE FLOW OF REACTING GASES
Suppose that we have determined composition of gases in combustion
chamber
Now compute flow through nozzle taking into account chemical
reactions
• 3 major deviations from simple model based on ideal gas behavior
1. Composition of gas is not necessarily constant in flow
• Properties that are composition dependent must be treated as variables along flow
direction
• Specific heats, gas constant and ratio of specific heats
2. Sum of thermal energy and kinetic energy is no longer constant
• Exchange of chemical energy and thermal energy
3. Non-isentropic
• We can neglect this entropy change for 2 special cases
193
NOZZLE FLOW OF REACTING GASES
• To deal with the flow, we first note that energy conservation for the gas flow is:
u2
H c  H (T , P) 
2
• This replaced the ideal gas energy equation:
u2
C pTc  C pT 
2
• Need statement about variation of entropy
• Transfer from chemical to thermal energy takes place at finite rate, therefore entropy
increase
• There are 2 limiting cases for which entropy change is very small
1. Chemical Equilibrium
2. Frozen Flow

194
NOZZLE FLOW OF REACTING GASES
• Chemical Equilibrium
• Approached if the reactions occur fast enough to keep up with T
& P change caused by expansion
• Flow time >> Reaction time
• Chemical energy is transferred through an infinitesimal T
S   xi P, T Si P, T   Sc
• xi determined by equilibrium at local T & P
S   xi Pc , Tc Si P, T   Sc
• Frozen Flow
• Reactions occur slowly, xi are fixed at their chamber values
• Flow time << reaction time
• No chemical energy release

195
NOZZLE FLOW OF REACTING GASES
• Chemical Equilibrium and Frozen Flow are 2 limiting cases
• Provide an upper and lower limit for the velocity at a given pressure

• Chemical Equilibrium gives maximum thermal energy availability for conversion for kinetic energy
• Frozen Flow gives minimum

Phenomenological explanation of why this is so:

• Gases leaving combustion chamber are so hot products of combustion are highly dissociated
• Dissociated compounds will tend to recombine because of large drop in T during nozzle expansion
process
• Recombination is exothermic and acts as heat source in flow (changes in Cp and )

• However, Isp always lower with dissociation than with no dissociation at all

196
HOW DO WE DESIGN NOZZLES?
• Start with 1-D approximation
• Always first step
• Tools in place to do this
• At design stage
• 2D analysis
• Method of characteristics (2D or axisymmetric)
• Curve-Fitting to specify shape L < Lopt(M.O.C.) and iteration with M.O.C.
• Boundary layer approximations
• Divergence approximation
• Complete 3D analysis of flow field
• CFD
• Consider non-uniformities
• Critical operating regimes (near separation)
• These analyses lead to a few percentage points in Isp, but well worth it

197
METHOD OF CHARACTERISTICS
EXAMPLE

198
CFD EXAMPLE

199
Rocket Performance:
• -Equation of state (Ideal gas law)
• -Continuity equation (Conservation of mass)
• -Conservation of momentum
• -Conservation of energy ( first law of thermodynamics)
• -Isentropic expansion (second law of thermodynamics)
• Considerable numerical computations are thus necessary. Sophisticated
computer modelling & simulation are to be done exclusively for accurate
prediction of performance.

200
Design Parameters
1.Thrust levels
2.Performance
3.Burn time
4.Propellant mixture ratio
5.Burnout mass.
6.Envelope/Size
7.Reliability
8.Cost
9.Schedule.

201
1.Thrust Level.
-Lift off weight
-Minimum & maximum acceleration allowed.
-Single engine or multiple engine.
-Variable thrust.

202
2. Performance
-Specific Impulse
-Theoretical
-Tested
-Flight

203
3.Burn duration
-Tank capacity
-Pressurant storage
-Nozzle cooling
-Thrust build up
-Shut down

204
4.Mixture Ratio
-Stoichiometric ratio
-(max. temp & heat)
-Exhaust velocity
-(gas properties)
-Optimum ratio
-(Residence time in combustion chamber; Chamber wall cooling)

205
5.Burnout Mass
-Dry mass + residual propellants
-Burn out mass
-Wet mass –CG & MI
-Wet gimbal mass.

206
6.Envelope/Size
-Vehicle Structure
-Handling
-Servicing
-Realisation
-Expansion Ratio

207
7.Reliability
-Unmanned/manned mission
-Review of design, calculation & drawing
-Paintaking execution of the above
-Familiarizing with correct application of accepted, prior design
standards & procedures
-Written statements & instruction
-Simplicity, Redundancy & Safety
-Test condition vs. Flight condition

208
8.Cost
-Design Phase
-Engineering Phase
-Programme phase.

209
9. Schedule.
-Availability of subsystems
-Design Quality
-System Analysis
-Materials, Fabrication, Handling.

210
NOZZLE BASICS REVIEW
• Nozzle produces thrust
• Convert thermal energy of hot chamber
gases into kinetic energy and direct that
energy along nozzle axis
• Exhaust gases from combustion are
pushed into throat region of nozzle
• Throat is smaller cross-sectional area than
rest of engine → gases
• Nozzle gradually increases in cross-
sectional area allowing gases to expand
and push against walls creating thrust
• Mathematically, ultimate purpose of
nozzle is to expand gases as efficiently as
possible so as to maximize exit velocity

F  m eVe  Pe  Pa Ae

F  m eVe 211
 NOZZLE BASICS REVIEW
• Expansion Area Ratio:
• Most important parameter in nozzle design is expansion area
ratio, 
Aexit Ae
  *
Athroat A
• Fixing other variables (primarily chamber pressure) → only one
ratio that optimizes performance for a given altitude (or ambient
pressure)
• However, rocket does not travel at only one altitude
• Should know trajectory to select expansion ratio that maximizes
performance over a range of ambient pressures

• Other factors must also be considered

• Nozzle weight, length, manufacturability, cooling (heat transfer),
and aerodynamic characteristics. 212
OPERATION OF CONVERGING
NOZZLES • A converging nozzle will choke when P is reduced to a
critical value P* (found from isentropic relations)
b

• Pe = P* is called design pressure ratio

• For Pb > P*
• Flow will be subsonic
• Pe = Pb
Pe • For any Pb < P*
• Flow will be sonic at nozzle exit
• Pe > Pb
• Flow is choked and Pe = P*

Pb
Questions?
• Can this nozzle ever produce a supersonic flow in the
converging portion?

• Can this nozzle ever produce a supersonic region in the

exhaust? Is this region expanding or being compressed?

• Can this nozzle ever be over-expanded, such that Pe < Pb? 213
 OPERATION OF CD NOZZLES
• Configuration for converging-diverging (CD) nozzle is shown below
• Gas flows through nozzle from region of high pressure (chamber) to low pressure (ambient)
• The chamber is taken as big enough so that any flow velocities are negligible
• Gas flows from chamber into converging portion of nozzle, past the throat, through the
diverging portion and then exhausts into the ambient as a jet
• Pressure of ambient is referred to as back pressure

214
OPERATION OF CD NOZZLES

215
OPERATION OF CD NOZZLES

All practical rockets operate in regimes (e)-(g) 216

EXAMPLE: SPACE SHUTTLE MAIN ENGINE,
~ 77
• Static pressure at exit of Space Shuttle
Main Engine nozzle is considerably
less than ambient pressure at sea
level

• Mismatch in pressure gives rise to

Mach “disc” in nozzle exhaust

• Extremely strong shock wave that

creates a region of subsonic flow and
produces a characteristic white
luminescent glow

• Flow in picture is over-expanded (lift-

off)
217
OVER-EXPANDED FLOW

218
UNDER-EXPANDED FLOW

219
EXAMPLE: ROCKET LAUNCH
Ae/A*=20
1.8

1.6 Burnout (Under-Expanded)

↑ Vertical Flight
1.4 Max Thrust (Ideally Expanded)
1.2

Launch (Over-Expanded)
T/Tconv

1.0
Pa/Po=0.05
0.8 Pa/Po=0.03
Pa/Po=0.02
0.6 Pa/Po=0.01
Pa/Po=0.005
0.4 Pa/Po=0.003
Decreasing Back Pressure
Pa/Po=0.002
0.2 Pa/Po=0.001
or
Pa/Po=0.0
Increasing Altitude
0.0
1 10 Ae/A* 100 1000
220
 MOMENTUM BALANCE FOR A ROCKET

Rocket mass X Acceleration = Thrust – Drag -gravity effect

dVr
Mr  FT  g sin   Fdrag
dt 221
 Rocket Principles

• High pressure/temperature/velocity exhaust gases provided through

combustion and expansion through nozzle of suitable fuel and oxidiser
mixture.

• A rocket carries both the fuel and oxidiser onboard the vehicle whereas an
air-breather engine takes in its oxygen supply from the atmosphere.

222
Criteria of Performance
• Specific to rockets only.
– thrust
– specific impulse
– total impulse
– effective exhaust velocity
– thrust coefficient
– characteristic velocity

223
Thrust (F)
For a rocket engine:

 ejectsUejects  A e pe  pamb 

FT  m
Where:
m = propellant mass flow rate
pe = exit pressure, paamb = ambient
pressure
Uejects = exit plane velocity, Ae = exit area

224
Specific Impulse (I or Isp)
• The ratio of thrust / ejects mass flow rate is used to define a
rocket’s specific impulse-best measure of overall performance of
rocket motor.

FT
Isp 
m ejects

• In SI terms, the units of I are m/s or Ns/kg.

• In the US:
• with units of seconds - multiply by g (i.e. 9.80665 m/s2) in
order to obtain SI units of m/s or Ns/kg.
• Losses mean typical values are 92% to 98% of ideal values.
225
Total Impulse (Itot)
tb

• Defined as: Itotal   FT dt

0
where tb = time of burning

• If FT is constant during burn:

Itotal  FT  tb

226
• Thus the same total impulse may be obtained by
either :
• high FT, short tb (usually preferable), or
• low FT, long tb
• Also, for constant propellant consumption (ejects) rate:

FT
Itotal   m ejects tb
m ejects

227
 Effective Exhaust Velocity (c)
• Convenient to define an effective exhaust velocity (c),
where:

FT
FT  m
 ejectsc c I
 ejects
m

c  Ue 
pe  pamb Ae
 ejects
m

228
 Thrust Coefficient (CF)

• Defined as:
FT
CF 
Pc A t
where pc = combustion chamber pressure,

At = nozzle throat area

• Depends primarily on (pc/pa) so a good indicator of
nozzle performance – dominated by pressure ratio.

229
Characteristic Velocity (c*)

• Defined as: Pc A t
C *
 ejects
m (6)

•Calculated from standard test data.

• It is independent of nozzle performance and is therefore
used as a measure of combustion efficiency – dominated by
Tc (combustion chamber temperature).

230
Thermodynamic Performance - Thrust

• Parameters affecting thrust are primarily:

– mass flow rate
– exhaust velocity
– exhaust pressure
– nozzle exit area

231
Thermodynamic Performance
- Specific Impulse

232
Thermodynamic Performance
- Specific Impulse
Variable Parameters - Observations
• Strong pressure ratio effect - but rapidly diminishing returns
after about 30:1.
• High Tc value desirable for high I - but gives problems with
heat transfer into case walls and dissociation of combustion
products – practical limit between about 2750 and 3500 K,
depending on propellant.
• Low value of molecular weight desirable – favouring use of
hydrogen-based fuels.
• Low values of  desirable.

233
Thrust Coefficient (CF)
• Maximum thrust when exhausting into a
vacuum (e.g. in space), when:
(11a
)

234
Thrust Coefficient (CF)
- Observations
• More desirable to run a rocket under-expanded (to left of optimum line)
rather than over-expanded.
• Uses shorter nozzle with reduced weight and size.
• Increasing pressure ratio improves performance but improvements
diminish above about 30/1.
• Large nozzle exit area required at high pressure ratios – implications for
space applications.

235
Actual Rocket Performance
• Performance may be affected by any of the following deviations
to simplifying assumptions:
– Properties of products of combustion vary with static temperature
and thus position in nozzle.
– Specific heats of combustion products vary with temperature.
– Non-isentropic flow in nozzle.
– Heat loss to case and nozzle walls.
– Pressure drop in combustion chamber due to heat release.
– Power required for pumping liquid propellants.
– Suspended particles present in exhaust gas.

236
Internal Ballistics
• Liquid propellant engines store fuel and oxidizer separately - then
introduced into combustion chamber.
• Solid propellant motors use propellant mixture containing all material
required for combustion.
• Majority of modern use solid propellant rocket motors, mainly due to
simplicity and storage advantages.
• Internal ballistics is study of combustion process of solid propellant.

237
Solid Propellant Combustion

• Combustion chamber is high pressure tank containing propellant

charge at whose surface burning occurs.

• No arrangement made for its control – charge ignited and left to

itself so must self-regulate to avoid explosion.

• Certain measure of control provided by charge and combustion

chamber design and with inhibitor coatings.

238
 CHEMICAL ROCKET ENGINES
presence of liquid drops and solid particles- two phase flow, losses,
efficiency.
Computing rocket engine performance- theoretical, delivered performance,
performance at standard operating conditions, guaranteed minimum
performance.

239
240
Rocket engine performance
RPA is a program which calculates chemical equilibrium product
concentrations from specified set of propellant components, determines
thermodynamic properties for the product mixture, and calculates
theoretical as well as estimated test (actual) nozzle performance.
The method used for obtaining equilibrium compositions is the
minimization of Gibbs free energy. Applied to the combustion chamber,
the method allows:
•to determine the equilibrium product concentrations from adiabatic,
isenthalpic combustion of two or more reactants
•to determine the equilibrium product concentrations from
monopropellant decomposition
•to calculate the isentropic quasi-one-dimensional nozzle flow for both
shifting and frozen equilibrium flow models
241
To obtain the rocket performance, the tool calculates conditions at
several sections of the chamber. It always includes the calculation of
combustion (injector section) and nozzle throat parameters, as well as
nozzle exit parameters, defined by either nozzle exit pressure pe,
expansion pressure ratio pt/pe, or expansion area ratio Ae/At.
The user can force the program to calculate the performance with
respect of pressure drop between injector and nozzle inlet, defining
such parameters as a chamber mass flux or a nozzle inlet contraction
area ratio Ac/At.

242
• Default nozzle flow model is a shifting equilibrium: combustion products continue
to react and reach chemical equilibrium at each temperature and pressure
conditions along the nozzle.
• The user can trigger the "freezing" of nozzle flow composition downstream of the
throat.
• In this case, it is assumed that composition is "frozen" (infinitely slow reaction
rates) during expansion along the nozzle. The location of "freezing" nozzle section
is defined by either pressure ratio pt/pfr, or area ratio Afr/At.
• In case of overxpanded nozzle flow, the tool calculates the performance with
respect of flow separation.

243
Electric Propulsion
Unit 5

244
Electric Propulsion (EP)
• Electric propulsion (EP) encompass a broad variety of strategies for
achieving very high exhaust velocities in order to reduce the total
propellant burden and corresponding launch mass of present and
future space transportation systems.

245
Limitations of Chemical Rockets
• Chemical rocket: exhaust ejection velocity intrinsically limited by the
propellant-oxidizer reaction
• Larger velocity increment of the spacecraft could be obtained only
with a larger ejected mass flow.
• Mission practical limitation: exceedingly large amount of propellant
that needs to be stored aboard

246
ELECTRIC PROPULSION OVERVIEW
• Chemical rockets: Energy limited
• Limited to energy contained within propellants they carry
• High power (W=J/s) due to rapid conversion of energy
• Electric systems: Power limited
• No limit to energy added to propellant (in theory)
• However, rate of conversion of energy to power limited by mass of conversion
equipment which must be carried, Melectrical
• Possible to achieve very high exhaust velocities at cost of high power
consumption
• Electric propulsion broadly defined as acceleration of propellants by:
• Electrical heating (thermal rocket)
• Electric body forces
• Magnetic body forces
247
These techniques group broadly into three categories:

• Electrothermal propulsion, wherein the propellant is electrically heated,

then expanded thermodynamically through a nozzle.

• Electrostatic propulsion, wherein ionized propellant particles are accelerated

through an electric field.

• Electromagnetic propulsion, wherein current driven through a propellant

plasma interacts with an internal or external magnetic field to provide a stream-
wise body force.

248
COMMENTS / CHALLENGES

• Electrothermal: Use electricity to heat propellant (resistojet, arcjet)

• Limited by wall temperature heating
• Specific impulse not be much greater than H2-O2 chemical rocket
• Unless pure H2 as propellant

• Electrostatic and Electromagnetic not influenced in this way

• Propellant is not heated
• Ue (or Isp) not set by temperature
• Gas is ionized and accelerated by electric and magnetic fields
• Higher exit velocities, but very limited by power
• Low thrust
• Long mission times

249
COMPARISON EXAMPLE: ORDER OF MAGNITUDE

• Liquid Rocket: Energy Limited

• Ue ~ 4,500 m/s
• Isp ~ 450 s
• Energy ~ 100 GJ
• Power ~ 300 MW
• Thrust ~ 2,000,000 N

• Ion Rocket (Electrostatic): Power Limited

• Ue ~ 30,000 m/s
• Isp ~ 3,000 s
• Energy ~ 1,000 GJ
• Power ~ 1 kW
• Thrust ~ 0.1 N

250
DEFINITIONS
General form of rocket equation
Chemical (thermal) and electric rockets
 Mo 
V  Ve ln R   Ve ln   Remember: Propulsive force developed
M 
 f  by an electric thruster same physical
origin as chemical thruster: It is
momentum transferred to propellant

M o M payload  M structure  M propellant  M electrical


Mf M payload  M structure  M electrical

Melectrical is mass of electrical conversion equipment that rocket must carry

Mass is a significant part of rockets total weight (depends strongly on power)

251
SOME TYPICAL POWER (W) VALUES
• Light Bulb
• 40 – 100 W

• Resistojets
• ~ 500 W
• ~ 200 mN of thrust

• 1970’s: SERT II (Space Electrical Rocket Test II) Ion Propulsion (electrostatic)
• Photovoltaic energy source
• ~ 850 W
• 30 mN of thrust, Isp ~ 4,200 s

• Nuclear-Electric generator (see next slides)

• ~ 100 kW range (up to MW range, but strong dependence on mass)
• 600,000 pounds of chemical fuel = 1 pound of nuclear fuel

252
POWER REQUIREMENTS

253
TYPICAL VALUES: SPECIFIC MASS (= kg/kW)
• Lightweight (Advanced) Solar Arrays
• Small: 10 kg/kW
• Large: 300 kg/kW
• Becomes prohibitively large as power requirement increases

• Photovoltaic power supply

• ~ 400 kg/kW

• RTG (Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator)

• 125 kg/kW – 500 kg/kW
• New Horizons (Pluto) Mission (and over 25 others)

• 100 kW lunar nuclear reactor

• 30 kg/kW

• Fuel cells (wide range of values)

• 50 – 500 kg/kW
254
SPECIFIC MASS (kg/kW) OF NUCLEAR POWER PLANTS FOR
SPACE APPLICATIONS
35
Mass = 3,000 kg
30

25
Specific Mass, kg/kW

20

15

10
Mass = 3,500 kg Mass = 10,000 kg Mass = 20,000 kg
5

Mass = 4,000 kg
0
100 1000 10000
Electrical Power, kW
255
ROCKET PERFORMANCE
COMPARISON

256
DEFINITIONS P = Power of Conversion Equipment

M electrical  kg  
  W   = Specific Mass of Electric Conversion Equipment
P  = Mass-to-Power Ratio

P W 
  kg   = Specific Power of Electric Conversion Equipment
M electrical    = Power-to-Mass Ratio
1
m Ve2
 = efficiency of power conversion
 2  = kinetic energy flux in exhaust/electric power supplied
P
M propellant
m 
tb tb = ‘burn’ time (remember that propellant is not actually
burning, but is being used)
257
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: GENERAL TRENDS
• Power does not diminish during flight
• Propellant diminishes during flight
• Power proportional to mass of power supply
• Mass of rocket depends on mass of power supply and hence on power
• Mass flow rate usually constant

• Exhaust velocity no longer a free parameter

• Fixed by power and mass flow rate
• Mass flow rate related to burn time and mass of propellant

• If we want to increase exhaust velocity or mass flow rate

• Requires an increase in power supplied to thruster (larger Melectrical)
• If we want to increase mass flow rate
• Leads to shorter burn time

258
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: GENERAL TRENDS

• Importance of burn time

• Defines rate at which propellant is used and hence power that has to be applied
• For same mass of propellant, short burn time requires higher power and heavier power supply

• Mass ratio (R = M0/Mfinal) for a given propellant mass decreases as exhaust velocity
increases, due to increased power supply mass
• Not true for chemical rocket, in which exhaust velocity and mass ratio, are in principle,
independent

• For electric vehicle, increase in exhaust velocity requiring increase in power could result
in NO improvement in vehicle velocity, due to increased mass
• Not true for chemical rocket

There Is An Optimum Exhaust Velocity For Electric Rockets

259
PARAMETRIC INVESTIGATION

260
PARAMETRIC INVESTIGATION (tb)
Vehicle Velocity as a function of Exhaust Velocity and Burn Time,
=500 W/kg, Ms/Mp=0.15
1.E+05

1.E+04
Vehicle Velocity, m/s

1.E+03

1.E+02

t=1e2 sec
1.E+01
t=1e3 sec
t=1e4 sec
1.E+00 t=1e5 sec
t=1e6 sec
t=1e7 sec
1.E-01
1.E+02 1.E+03 1.E+04 1.E+05 1.E+06
Exhaust Velocity, m/s 261
KEY POINTS (PARAMETER: tb)

• Plot shows velocity of vehicle as a function of exhaust velocity, assuming a fixed

relationship between exhaust velocity and power supply mass
• Power-to-Mass ratio, , is fixed at 500 W/kg (corresponds to  = 2 kg/kW)
• Ratio of structural mass to propellant mass, Ms/Mp, is fixed at 0.15
• Burn time, tb, is the parameter being varied
• Vehicle velocity peaks for a certain value
• Does not increase monotonically
• Increasing burn time increases peak value of vehicle velocity and optimal exhaust
velocity

262
• Decrease in vehicle velocity above a certain point is due to increasing relative
mass of power supply (and hence a reduction in mass ratio)

• Exhaust velocity for a given power depends inversely on mass flow rate
• Low mass flow rates or long burn times are beneficial
• Thrust is inversely proportional to burn time
• Long burn times and high exhaust velocities imply low thrust

263
PARAMETRIC INVESTIGATION (Mstruct/Mprop or Mpay/Mprop)
Vehicle Velocity as a function of Exhaust Velocity and Ms/Mp,
=500 W/kg, t=1e6 seconds
1.E+05

1.E+04
Vehicle Velocity, m/s

1.E+03

Mpay/Mprop=0.05
Mpay/Mprop=0.1
1.E+02
Mpay/Mprop=1
Mpay/Mprop=2
Mpay/Mprop=5
Mpay/Mprop=10
1.E+01
1.E+02 1.E+03 1.E+04 1.E+05 1.E+06
Exhaust Velocity, m/s 264
KEY POINTS (PARAMETER: Mstruct/Mprop)

• Examines vehicle velocity as a function of ratio of structural mass (or

payload) to propellant mass, Ms/Mp as a parameter
• Burn time is fixed a 1 million seconds (~12 days)
• Power-to-Mass ratio fixed at 500 W/kg

• Vehicle velocity increases as the fraction of propellant increases

• Peak vehicle velocity moves to higher exhaust velocities as the
payload mass increases
• Confirms that high exhaust velocity is advantageous for long missions

265
PARAMETRIC INVESTIGATION ()
Vehicle Velocity as a function of Exhaust Velocity and ,
Ms/Mp=0.15, t=1e6 seconds
1.E+06
100 W/kg
500 W/kg
1 kW/kg
1.E+05 5 kW/kg
10 kW/kg
Vehicle Velocity, m/s

50 kW/kg
1.E+04

1.E+03

1.E+02

1.E+01

1.E+00
1.E+02 1.E+03 1.E+04 1.E+05 1.E+06
Exhaust Velocity, m/s
266
KEY POINTS (PARAMETER: )

• Examine role of Power-to-Mass ratio of power supply

• Burn time fixed at 1 million seconds
• Payload-to-Propellant mass ratio set to 0.15

• Increasing Power-to-Mass ratio increases the vehicle velocity

• Peak velocity moves towards higher exhaust velocities as power-to-mass
ratio increases
• For very large velocity increments, a high power-to-mass ratio must be
matched by high exhaust velocity
• Importance of exhaust velocity
• High exhaust velocity allows much higher payload-to-propellant mass ratios
• Power-to-mass ratio of power supply is crucial in obtaining best performance
267
EXAMPLE DEVICES
• Electrothermal
• Resistojet, Arcjet
• Electrostatic
• Ion, Hall Effect
• Electromagnetic
• MPD (magnetoplasmadynamic), PPT (pulsed plasma thrusters)

268
ELECTROTHERMAL: RESISTOJET
Aerojet MR-501B resistojet
Uses hydrazine propellant at a flow rate of
0.045-0.1225 g/s. It consists of two
main assemblies:
1) a small catalyst bed with its electro-
magnetically operated propellant valve
and with heaters to prevent freezing of
the propellant, and
2) an electrical resistance spiral-shaped
heater surrounded by thin radiation
shields made from tungsten and high-
temperature electric insulators for
supporting the power leads.
Power input level may be up to 500 W @
25 V. Thruster mass is 0.9 kg.
269
• MR-501B resistojet in detail
• Hydrazine thruster used on INMARSAT III satellites
• Thrust (N): 0.8-0.36
• Operation Pressure (bar): 26.5-6.2
• Spec. Impulse (s): 299
• Min. Impulse Bit (mNs): 88.96
• Total Impulse (kNs): 524.9
• Mass (kg): 0.871
• Valve Power (W): 8.25
• Valve Heater Power (W): 1.54
• Cat. Bed Heater Power (W): 3.93
• Augmentation Heater Power (W): 885-610
• Augmentation Heater Voltage (VDC): 29.5-24.5
• Steady State Firing:
• 2.0 hrs - single firing
• 370 hrs - cumulative 270
NASA MULTI-PROPELLANT
RESISTOJET

271
• A schematic of a NASA developed model multi-propellant resistojet.
• It consists of a radiation heating element located in an evacuated cavity within
an annular heat exchanger body.
• The heat exchanger consists of two concentric tubes sealed together to permit
contained gas flow within the annular region between them.
• A spiral channel near the rear (inlet end) of the heat exchanger directs the flow
circumferentially to reduce heat loss from the rear of the thruster.
• The flow is then directed axially by 16 small channels in the forward (hottest)
section of the heat exchanger after which the gases are expanded in the nozzle.
• The heating element is made from a coiled tube comprised of 22 turns over a
length of 5.8 cm The platinum thruster components are joined by electron
beam (EB) welds.
• To minimise radiative heat losses from the outer surface of the heat exchanger,
the thruster is wrapped with radiation shielding consisting of two layers of 0.03
mm platinum foil followed by 13 layers of 0.13 mm stainless steel foil.
• The layers of the shielding are separated by small-diameter wires.
272
• Other propellants: water, N2, N2O, He, CH3OH, CO2, NH3, N2H4
• Higher molecular weight, higher thrust
• Higher molecular weight, lower Isp
• Typical power ranges: 10-600 W
• Up to 60 kW (pulsed)
• Thrust levels: mN – N range
• Efficiencies typically around 80%

273
ELECTROTHERMAL: ARCJET • Low power hydrazine arcjets in use on TelStar IV
communication satellites
• First space test of a high power arcjet for use in
orbit raising operations launched in 1997 under Air
Force ESEX program

Hydrogen arcjet plume firing

Runs on H2, N2, or a mixture, at about 12A, 1 kW
peak around 600 Isp, (20-30% efficiency) 274
ELECTROTHERMAL: ARCJET IN DETAIL

275
• Arc is a beam of electrons emitted from tip of cathode and collected at positively
biased anode
• Between cathode and anode is a narrow passageway called constrictor
• As electrons leave cathode, electric fields that exist between cathode and anode
accelerate them
• Gas is injected near base of cathode with an azimuthal swirl
• Swirling flow surrounds cathode and electric arc in constrictor
• Swirl prevents arc from kinking and touching walls, thereby keeping
constrictor from melting
• Swirl helps circulate gas through arc, which can have an effective temperature
over 15,000 °C.
• Arcjets developed for a multitude of applications ranging from station keeping of
moderate-sized spacecraft (500 W, hydrazine) to a piloted mission to Mars (100
kW, hydrogen)
• Specific impulses range from approximately 500-600 s on hydrazine to ~2,000 s
on hydrogen 276
ELECTROTHERMAL: ARCJET
• Primary limitations on performance
• Energy losses through dissociation and ionization
• Heat transfer losses
• Walls
• Radiation losses
• Loss of material at electrode surfaces
• Since gas conductivity increases rapidly with temperature, attempts to produce high exhaust velocity
(high T0) are hampered by associated decrease of arc-column resistance relative to rest of circuit
• This results in a decreasing fraction of total electrical power liberated in arc column
• Electrothermal systems have limited utility for a number of deep-space missions with large ΔV because of
performance constraints of excessive frozen flow and electrode losses
• 20% of input power is deposited into electrodes as heat
• Specific impulse and thrust efficiency of arcjets operating on standard space-storable propellants (e.g.,
hydrazine) are limited to less than 700 s and 41%, respectively
• Recent US Air Force arcjet tests have demonstrated specific impulses of over 800 s on ammonia,
which is also space storable, at 30% thrust efficiency
• Researchers in Germany have shown that arcjets can produce specific impulses of 2,000 s with
hydrogen as propellant, but also at relatively low efficiency.

277
Electrostatic Thrusters

Ion thruster
Hall thruster

278
ION ENGINES: NASA NSTAR

279
• Ion thrusters are electrostatic propulsion engines
• Ions (typically Xenon or Krypton) are produced in a discharge chamber via
collisions between neutral atom and energetic electrons generated by a hollow
cathode in discharge chamber
• Ions are accelerated through two fine grids with roughly 1300 V difference
between them for 2.3 kW operation
• Ion beam is "neutralized" by electrons emitted from a second hollow cathode
external to discharge assembly.
• The NASA Solar Electric Propulsion Technology Application Readiness (NSTAR)
program developed 2.3 kW ion engine for use as a primary propulsion engine for
orbit transfer and intra-solar system trajectories
• NSTAR engine is primary propulsion for Deep Space 1 (DS-1) probe currently in route for
comet and asteroid rendezvous

280
281
OPERATING PRINCIPLES OF DS1 ION
THRUSTER

282
283
284
ION: 2 kW LINEAR GRIDLESS ION THRUSTER (LGIT)
• Linear Gridless Ion Thruster (LGIT) is two-stage device designed
to incorporate efficient ionization process found in gridded ion
thrusters with high thrust density and crossed-field acceleration
mechanism of Hall thrusters
• Can think of this thruster as ionization stage of an ion thruster
combined with acceleration stage of a Hall thruster

285
ELECTROSTATIC: PROPELLANTS
• Alkali Metals: H, Li, Na, K, Rb, Cs
• Low ionization potential (easy to create ions), 1 electron in outer
shell
• Inert: He, Ne, Ar, Kr, Xe, outer shell full
• Hg: two electrons in outer shell

286
KEY PERFORMANCE PARAMETERS

287
ELECTROSTATIC ROCKET PERFORMANCE TRENDS

288
ELECTROSTATIC ROCKET PERFORMANCE TRENDS

289
NASA-173GT 2-Stage Hybrid Hall/Ion Thruster

HALL: UM-NASA, NASA-173M Hall Thruster

290
HALL THRUSTER

291
3 kW T-140 HALL THRUSTER (P&W)

292
ELECTROMAGNETIC: MPD

• Lack of high performance in electrothermal systems that may have first led
to development of one kind of electromagnetic engine; the
magnetoplasmadynamics (MPD) thruster

• MPD thruster "invented" by accident

• Arcjet researchers were investigating effect of mass flow rate on thrust

• They noted that while thrust of arcjet initially dropped with decreasing mass flow
rate as expected, thrust began to increase with decreasing flow rate once a
sufficiently low flow rate was reached
• This seemingly impossible result marked transition from electrothermal heating to
electromagnetic acceleration as flow rate decreased

293
ELECTROMAGNETIC: MPD

• Electromagnetic devices pass a large current through a small amount of gas to ionize propellant
• Once ionized, plasma is accelerated by electromagnetic body force called Lorentz force which is
created by interaction of a current (j) with magnetic field (B):
F=j x B
• Current provided between energized positive and negative electrodes, while magnetic field is
either induced by (created from) current itself, applied externally via an electromagnet or both
• Strength of Lorentz force for an MPD thruster with a self-induced magnetic field is roughly
proportional to ratio J2 / mdot, where J is total thruster current
• While gas-phase propellants like hydrogen and lithium (after vaporization) can be used, solid
propellants can also be used in pulsed electromagnetic accelerators called pulsed plasma
thrusters (PPTs).

294
ELECTROMAGNETIC: MPD

295
ELECTROMAGNETIC: PPT
• PPTs use solid Teflon propellant to deliver specific impulses in the 900 - 1,200 s range and
very low, precise impulse "bits" (10-1,000 μNs) at low average power (< 1 to 100 W)
• PPTs inherently inefficient (η ~5%)
• Simplicity and low impulse bits provide highly useful
• Precision-flying of a spacecraft constellation
• PPT consists of a coiled spring that feeds Teflon propellant bar, an igniter plug to initiate a
small-trigger electrical discharge, a capacitor, and electrodes through which current flows
• Plasma is created by ablating Teflon from discharge of capacitor across electrodes
• Plasma is then accelerated to generate thrust by Lorenz force that is established by
current and its induced magnetic field
• PPT flown on both American and Soviet/Russian spacecraft since the 1960s
• PPT was used to maintain fine pitch attitude control for NASA New Millennium Program's
Earth Observing-1 mission launched in 2000
296
ELECTROMAGNETIC: PPT
• MPD thrusters can be operated in pulsed mode like PPTs or continuously
• MPD thruster's high specific impulse ( > 4,000 s) and high power density make it an excellent candidate for high-
power, high-ΔV missions
• MPD thrusters suffer from relatively low efficiency ( < 50%) due to frozen flow losses and electrode deposition
• Figure shows a 30 kW MPD thruster operating on lithium propellant at Princeton University
• Lithium-propellant MPD thrusters at power levels above 200 kW

297
PULSED PLASMA THRUSTER

298
THANK
YOU
299