Rocket Test Research Articles

Rocket Exhaust Air Pollution Prediction and Verification

Abstract The introduction of foreign material into the atmosphere as a result of rocket propellant test firings cannot be qualitatively disregarded; nor can promising propellants be qualitatively discarded simply because they contain “toxic” materials. A reliable method must be developed, tested and verified for quantitatively evaluating the significance of such test firings in terms of both local and general air pollution. Existing verified basic turbulent diffusion formulations have been extended to consider the characteristics of rocket exhaust clouds. Empirical formulations have also been developed to consider the initial rise and size of such clouds. The theoretical effect of the “capping” inversion has been reduced to equation form.

POWER SOURCE FOR A 1-KW ARC ENGINE TEST CAPSULE

Power supply designed for a 1-kw arc engine for use with the scout electric rocket test /sert/ program

Cryogenic engineering in nuclear rocketry

Reasons for the importance of cryogenics in nuclear rocketry are reviewed. Nuclear rocket test facilities and associated cryogenic equipment are described. Typical cryogenic problems are discussed.

Technical Training Rocket Rig

HAVING already produced a ramjet test rig for universities and technical colleges, it was found that a demand existed for this and other types of apparatus for the particular study of Applied Thermodynamics. It was therefore decided to extend the company's range of products to include combustion research test rigs as well as solid and gaseous rockets for technical training purposes. Details of the latest item—a solid propellent rocket test rig—have recently been released.

Design and performance characteristics of a high-speed wide-chart recorder

During the past decade, the requirements for null-balance instruments have greatly changed. Dynamic testing applications have increased the need for accurate, high-speed measuring devices. Specifications such as a span of 50 millivolts and full-scale response time of 5 seconds are supplemented with requirements for a span of 1.0 millivolt and a full-scale response time of less than 0.5 second. Such instruments are important in the fields of rocket or jet engine testing, wind tunnel measurements, automatic machine tool positioning control, and analog-to-digital readout systems using high-speed card punch or print-out operations.

Application of meteorological rocket systems

A series of test rocket firings has been conducted during the past 18 months to establish the operational feasibility of numerous rocket systems for meteorological observations. As might be expected, the most desirable systems from the point of view of instrumentation are generally not the most desirable from that of the rocket-firing problem. It has been demonstrated, however, that a reasonable observation schedule can be accomplished by the judicious application of currently available rockets and sensors. The most variable of high-atmosphere meteorological parameters is the flow. Chaff was used initially for rocket wind measurements because it could be expected to provide a suitable indication of the wind in the atmosphere above balloon sounding levels. It is easy to package and deploy. Most of the available high-atmosphere wind data have been obtained through use of a chaff sensor, and it is still most applicable for point measurements and at very high altitudes. The need for a more coherent sensor and a vehicle capable of transporting a telemetry system to provide for the measurement of other parameters has resulted in the development of a parachute system. Although an altitude range problem will always be encountered, it is possible to obtain data from approximately 200,000 ft. to the surface through the application of a single parachute and balloon combination. Launch and flight characteristics of the tested rockets are presented for use in applying this new observational technique. Careful adherence to the design and operational restrictions indicated by these data will result in savings in the effort required for development of the various desirable measuring techniques. Experience to date indicates that it is possible, with available equipment and a reasonable expenditure of effort, to obtain profiles of several meteorological parameters from the surface to altitudes of the order of 200,000 ft.

Lockheed X-l 7 Rocket Test Vehicle and Its Applications

s should be submitted to Ivan Tuhy, Staff Engineer, Solid Propellants, The Martin Co., Baltimore 3, Md., by September 30.

A transistorized FM/FM telemetering system

The purpose of this paper is not to give you a mass of technical facts and statistics to mentally masticate, but rather to give you a description of the conception and fruition of a minor telemetering program. The program was minor in the amount of money involved and the number of tests made, but, with others of its kind, it is enormous in its portent. I refer to the development and firing of an all-transistor subminiature telemeter. The initial program culminated a little more than three months ago in the firing of two small round rocket test vehicles at NOTS, China Lake.

The Rocket Test Engineer

Theoretically only one type exists; however, due to the selective process of dynamic evolution, four types are known to exist at various rocket establishments. The IDEAL type is the rocket test engineer you see in the movies, ads, and press releases. He is usually clad in protective clothing, wears a face shield, and sometimes sports a supersonic dunce cap. Invariably he is described as a refugee from Mars. This type has an extremely short half life, and immediately after being photographed he disintegrates into one of the types described below. I t is well known tha t he is well grounded in rocketry. The CALIFORNIA type is in the 20-25 year bracket. He wears an open-necked sport shirt at least 135 decibels louder than a typical rocket shot. His baseball cap is always perched on his head at an angle of at least 45 degrees or more, and by his side is always found a copy of Jet Comics and a frosty mint julep. He is quite versatile in the use of artifices. The MISFIRE type being in the 25-35 year niche obviously has been around rockets a little more than his junior Californian type. He invariably slinks around in chartreuse sneakers and plaid shirts 13.5 decibels louder than a rocket firing. His tie is a motley color, stained by eggs, soup, and red fuming nitric acid. Wandering about the installation (gutturally cursing the project engineer with quaint four-letter words) he is usually carrying a gnarled hydraulic line on some mission no one has been able to discover. Tha t bulge in his hip pocket, he claims, is only used to prime the alcohol pump before firing. The SENIOR type takes superadequate measures for tests. When not in his foxhole he can be detected by tha t light streaming through the jagged hole in his head. Besides knowing all about rockets, rie. is an expert on all kinds of soil and on ^certain internal propellants.

The 350,000-Pound Thrust Rocket Test Stand at Lake Denmark, N. J.

The 350,000-Pound Thrust Rocket Test Stand at Lake Denmark, N. J.

Rocket Applications of the Cavitating Venturi

F THE past few years the Curtiss-Wright Corporation has used the in its rocket test program as an extremely simple and accurate means for controlling flow of incompressible fluids. Although the interesting phenomenon that makes this possible is apparently not new, it has to the best of the writer's knowledge been employed only in rocket applications. Its principle of operation may be expressed thus: As the pressure drop across a conventional is increased, a point is reached at the throat where substantially all of the upstream head is converted into velocity head. The only static head remaining is that of the fluid vapor pressure. If, under these conditions the upstream head is maintained constant, a further increase of the pressure drop obtained by decreasing the downstream pressure cannot result in increased flow. This characteristic of a has been used to advantage in liquid propellant rockets and may find applications in other than the rocket field. Unusual flow characteristics of thick-plate orifices exhibited early in this company's test program led to the evolution of the cavitating Venturi concept and its application to the control of propellant flows. It may be of interest to examine briefly this early experience with thick orifices having sharp entrances. These orifices were chosen because they provided a simple method of adjusting pressure drop within a rocket hydraulic system, and they could be sized at the test site from the information gained from water calibrations. Because these water calibrations were made of the complete rocket motor hydraulic system as a unit, and because of facility limitations, it was necessary to allow the system to discharge to atmospheric pressure. Although this is generally considered bad practice when calibrating, a few check runs indicated this method to be sufficiently accurate and gave no trouble until later in the test program. In time discrepancies

Rocket Propulsion Elements

Classification definitions and fundamentals nozzle theory and thermodynamic relations flight performance chemical rocket propellant performance analysis liquid propellant rocket engine fundamentals liquid propellants thrust chambers combustion of liquid propellants turbopumps, engine design, engine controls, calibration, integration and optimization solid propellant rocket fundamentals solid propellants combustion of solid propellants solid rocket components and motor design hybrid propellant rockets thrust vector control selection of rocket propulsion systems rocket exhaust plumes electric propulsion rocket testing.

Liquid Rocket Motor Testing

The liquid rocket power plant has at tained a position of importance which was hardly imaginable a few years ago to most of the engineering profession and the public. Its continued advancement can be expected as long as man persists in want ing to go higher, farther and faster. aspect of rocket development which is of fundamental importance is, of course, testing. The major problems of rocket testing — problems which differentiate it from other engineering test — arise from the presence, in combination, of high pressures, high temperatures, high velocities, high noise levels, high flow rates, high heat transfer rates, high forces, high design stresses, short times, and novel and dangerous working fluids. It is clear that the old a d a g e One test is worth a thousand expert opinions could hardly find a better application.