Flight-Testing of Pressure Regulated Hydrogen-Peroxide Hybrid Rocket Technology Demonstrator

Abstract

The Purdue University School of Aeronautics and Astronautics is developing a 2 nd Generation (GEN-II) hybrid rocket technology demonstrator for launching in-flight experiments to altitudes exceeding 30,00 0 ft. The GEN-II vehicle seeks to increase the propellant mass fraction, the delivered total impulse and the performance of the hybrid rocket motor as compared to the GEN-I design, by making use of a pressure regulated propellant feed system. The pressure regulated feed system will enable the oxidizer to fill the entire tank, thus making use of all the available tank vol ume. This allows the motor to operate at its full b urn duration of 15 seconds, therefore significantly inc reasing the total impulse with respect to the GEN-I flightvehicle. Moreover, the 900 lbf thrust hybrid rocket motor will be operating at full thrust for the ent ire burn duration thus delivering higher performance. The inert mass of the GEN-II flight-vehicle is lowered by designing the motor and oxidizer tank to interface via a Y-joint instead of using an outer carbon-fibe r airframe. The oxidizer tank and combustion chamber were also designed with a lower, yet adequate safet y factor to reduce mass. Additional mass savings are realized by making use of a ‘single tube’ parachut e recovery system in place of the dual-deploy system used in earlier versions of the technology demonstr ator. In summary, the reduction in vehicle inert mass fracti on and the significant increase in vehicle total im pulse will enable the GEN-II vehicle to reach altitudes in exc ess of 30,000 ft, and velocities greater than Mach 1.5.