Investigation of the Evaporation Processes of Gel Propellant Droplets

Abstract:

Due to their high-performance and improved safety, gel propellants can be used in various boost motors and large launchers. The evaporation and combustion characteristics of gel propellants are the foundation for the gel-engine design. Especially, it is basal and important to study the gel droplet evaporation process. In this paper, the gel droplet evaporation model is developed to simulate the gel droplet evaporation process at first. Then the experiments to record the gel droplet evaporation process are conducted. During the droplet evaporation process, the decreased velocity of the droplet diameter increases gradually, whereas that of the droplet mass decreases gradually. The mass of both the liquid fuel and the gellant decreases gradually, however, the gellant mass concentration increases gradually and at the evaporation later stage the gellant mass is larger than that of the liquid fuel. The typical evaporation process characteristics captured by experiments are in reasonable agreement with the gel droplets evaporation mechanism. Especially, the “micro-burst” phenomenon of the gelled propellant may appears in rocket engines.

• Periodical: Advanced Materials Research (Volumes 146-147)
• Pages: 753-756
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.4028/www.scientific.net/AMR.146-147.753
• Online since: October 2010
• Authors: Song Jiang Feng, Hao Bo He, Xue Liu, Bo He, Wan Sheng Nie
• Keywords: Evaporation Model, Experiment, Gel Propellant, Numerical Simulation

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