Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-g7gxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-06T07:59:57.897Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Combustion in Liquid-Fuel Rocket Motors

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 June 2016

D. B. Spalding*
Affiliation:
Imperial College of Science and Technology, London
Get access

Summary

The paper provides a simplified picture of the processes occurring in liquid bi-propellant rocket motors. Droplet vaporisation, chemical reaction, and drag between gas and droplet are considered for a one-dimensional model. Quantitative theoretical results are presented for the variation of droplet size, droplet velocity, gas temperature and gas velocity within the chamber, particular attention being paid to the calculation of L*. The theory is applied to the German V2 rocket motor. Practical conclusions from, and extensions to, the theory are discussed.

Type
Research Article
Copyright
Copyright © Royal Aeronautical Society. 1959

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

This paper forms the substance of a lecture read before the Derby Branch of the Royal Aeronautical Society on 6th October 1958

References

1. Spalding, D. B. A One-Dimensional Theory of Liquid-Fuel Rocket Combustion. A.R.C. 20,175, 1958.Google Scholar
2. Spalding, D. B. Some Fundamentals of Combustion. Butterworth, London, 1955.Google Scholar
3. Saunders, O. A. and Spalding, D. B. Chemical and Physical Factors Controlling the Rats of Combustion. Joint Conference on Combustion, p. 14, Institution of Mechanical Engineers, 1955 (and other references given there).Google Scholar
4. Adler, J. A One-Dimensional Theory of Liquid-Fuel Rocket Combustion, II.A.R.C. 20,189, 1958.Google Scholar
5. Longwell, J. P. and Weiss, M. A. Heat Release Rates in Hydrocarbon Combustion. Joint Conference on Combustion, p. 334. Institution of Mechanical Engineers, 1955.Google Scholar
6. Priem, R. J. Propellant Vaporization as a Criterion for Rocket Engine Design; Calculations of Chamber Length to Vaporize a Single n-Heptane Drop. N.A.C.A. T.N. 3985, 1957; Propellant Vaporization as a Criterion for Rocket Engine Design; Calculations using Various Log-Probability Distributions to Heptane Drops. N.A.C.A. T.N. 4098, 1957.Google Scholar
7. Spalding, D. B. and Jain, V. K. Theory of the Burning of Mono-Propellant Droplets. A.R.C. 20,176, 1958.Google Scholar
8. Sutton, G. P. Rocket Propulsion Elements. Wiley, New York, 1949.Google Scholar