High speed combustion of mobile granular solid propellants: Wave structure and the equivalent Rankine-Hugoniot relation

Abstract

Granular solid propellants have great potential to produce high gasification rates and to generate high thrusts for propulsion systems. High-speed flame propagation of the order of 2500 cm/sec can be achieved in burning mobile granular solid propellants under a controlled chamber pressure of 290 atm at the consumed end. The detailed wave structure, including both gas and solid phases, has been studied; results show that strong pressure, velocity, and temperature gradients appear near the ignition front of the combustion wave. Particles are almost stationary with respect to the flame front in the unburned region, while they move quite vigorously with the product gas in the burned region. The jump conditions and the equivalent Rankine-Hugoniot relation are derived. Combustion waves propagated by a convective mechanism of energy transfer in granular propellants are found to lie on the deflagration branch of the equivalent Hugoniot curves.