Deposits evolution and its heat transfer characteristics research in solid rocket motor

Abstract

Current understanding the physical and chemical process involved in the insulator ablation of solid rocket motor (SRM) under slag deposition condition is limited. The ability to predict the surface ablation rate of a given insulation material is of great significance for the further design and modification of modern SRM. However, there are few reports on the heat transfer and ablation mechanism of insulators under deposition conditions. The overall objective of this research is to observe the evolution of deposits and reveal its heat transfer characteristics. Therefore, a novel multifunctional deposition experiment engine (MDEE) was designed in this paper on the basis of previous work. The MDEE design allows the use of a real-time X-ray radiography system to obtain deposits evolution images and to measure deposition heat flux. Images analysis shows that the process of slag deposition can be divided into initial deposition state, stable flutter state and end blowing state, respectively. The analysis of the deposition heat transfer characteristic shows that the total heat flux under the condition of slag deposition is mainly provided by the heat increment of deposits with an average value of 9.46 MW·m−2, while the convective heat flux of gas phase and thermal radiation flux of discrete phase can be ignored.