Characteristics of the combustion chamber of a boron-based solid propellant ducted rocket with a chin-type inlet

Abstract

The scope of this study is to improve combustion performance of a boron-based solid propellant ducted rocket (SPDR). A numerical approach for the internal reaction flow in SPDR was built, and an improved ignition and combustion model of boron particles was used. Many integrated physical processes of boron ignition and combustion, such as the balance of (BO)n on particle surface at ignition stage, the evaporation and boiling processes of boron at combustion stage, were considered. A new configuration of SPDR with swirling flow was proposed. Moreover, numerical and experimental investigations were conducted, and the effects of equivalence ratio and swirling flow on combustion performance were analysed. Validation of the developed numerical approach showed good agreement between the approach's results and available experimental data in open literature and also those in this study. Experimental results indicated that combustion efficiencies increase from 88% to 95% with swirling flow.