An Approach to Analysing Erosive Characteristics of Two-Channel Combustion Chambers

Abstract

To acquire the erosive characteristics of two-channel combustion chambers, a quasi-one-dimensional internal ballistics model is proposed. Combining the model with two different erosive burning models, the modified L-R expression, and the Mukunda-Paul expression, the flow parameters and the internal ballistics performance of a test solid rocket motor are computed. The results show good agreement with experimental data. According to the results, the more severe the erosion is, the earlier, longer, and gentler the tail-off stage becomes. During the tail-off stage, the dramatic drop of pressure leads to a low normal burning rate and makes it easier for erosion burning to occur. For this reason, notable erosive burning might appear during tail-off if the case-to-throat area ratio is extremely low. The results also show that flows in the inner channel and the outer channel are similar but not identical. This leads to different erosive burning behaviours in the two channels. Also, the two erosive burning rate models involved in this paper are compared. It seems that the M-P expression provides better results than the modified L-R expression does, since it reveals the threshold phenomena. Besides, the M-P expression has great advantages for its universality for most propellants and different SRM geometries.