Sensitivity analysis and uncertainty quantification on aluminum particle combustion for an upward burning solid rocket propellant

Abstract

A sensitivity analysis was conducted on an aluminum particle combustion simulation in an upward burning solid rocket propellant, via a computational fluid dynamics code, with comparison to experimental data. Correlations from Beckstead were used to formulate the evaporation rates for aluminum particles. Using one of the correlations for the sensitivity testing, it was found that as the propellant surface velocity increases, the maximum temperature would decrease, but it would increase the gas temperature closer to the propellant surface. Conversely, reducing the propellant surface velocity would increase the maximum temperature, but overshoot the experimental results. The baseline simulation data demonstrates reasonable agreement with the experimental data.