Internal ballistics of solid rocket motor

Abstract

The ability to accurately model the operation of a solid rocket motor before undergoing multiple firing tests is essential. The analysis of the internal ballistics of a solid rocket motor results in a depiction of the flow properties inside the chamber, and thus, the overall motor performance. Therefore, enhancing the internal ballistics prediction capabilities reduces the design and testing costs while increasing reliability. The present dissertation is the outcome of an extensive process of work and research driven by a great personal interest in Rocket Propulsion and Aerospace Engineering. The project was born with the purpose of developing a computer software capable of simulating the internal aerodynamics of a solid rocket motor, by means of a one-dimensional discretization, allowing to model the behaviour of three-dimensional propellant geometries. As a result, S2P2-ODIB has been developed. It is a C++ written software, designed and built in Qt Creator, which is capable of simulating the internal behaviour of a given solid rocket motor. It has been developed in a way that allows it to be expanded or merged into a larger computer application. S2P2-ODIB features both a quasi steady and an unsteady algorithm, which have been enhanced by implementing several models capable of predicting erosive combustion phenomena. This document gathers the theoretical framework, the numerical discretization, an insight into the data structure, the validation and results and, lastly, two application examples.