Investigation of Metallized and Nonmetallized Hydroxyl Terminated Polybutadiene/Hydrogen Peroxide Hybrid Rockets

Abstract

DOI: 10.2514/1.22091 Resultsfrom15statictest firingsoflabscalehybridrocketmotorsusing90%concentratedunstabilizedhydrogen peroxide as an oxidizer with hydroxyl terminated polybutadiene fuel are presented. Thirteen of those tests used aluminum or aluminum/magnesium alloy additive in the fuel. The performance characteristics of the propellant combinations were determined. The experimental results indicated combustion efficiencies of 0.72–0.89 and regression rates of 0:5–1:3 mm=s for the metallized fuel combinations. A correlation of the regression rate data for the metallized propellants deviated from that which was derived for turbulent convective heat transfer dominated behavior. A numerical model of the hydrogen peroxide/nonmetallized hydroxyl terminated polybutadiene motor wasbuilt using a commercial computational fluid dynamics code. The model was combined with an in-house code to predict the regression rate of the propellant combination, and the flowfield characteristics at the initial operating conditionsfortwooftheexperimentaltests.Theresultsofthemodelindicatedthattheproposednumericalmodelisa promisingtoolformappingthetemporalandspatialvariationoftheregressionrateinhybridmotorsoperatingwith homogeneous hydrocarbon fuels.