Influence of radiation on grain heating in ETC closed chambers

Abstract

A model of radiation from an ETC plasma is proposed to investigate bulk heating of the propellant. The radiant energy is transmitted to the solid propellant, the combustion chamber gases, and the chamber walls. A numerical simulation is used to compute the enhancement in the burning rate of the solid propellant as a result of the bulk temperature increase. The model is applied to a closed chamber ETC firing and indicates that absorption of radiant energy is sufficient to increase the bulk temperature of the propellant to a level which would have a significant impact on the gas generation rate.