Parametric Study of Design Options aecting Solid Rocket Motor Start-up and Onset of Pressure Oscillations

The start-up represents a very critical phase during the whole operational life of solid rocket motors. This paper provides a detailedstudy of the eects on the ignition transient of the main design parameters of solid propellant motors. The analysis is made with theuse of a Q1D unsteady model of solid rocket ignition transient, extensively validated in the frame of the VEGA program, for ignitiontransient predictions and reconstructions, during the last ten years. Two baseline solid rocket motor configurations are selected forthe parametric analysis: a big-booster with a three-segments propellant grain shape, similar to Ariane 5, and a small-booster/solidstage with an aft-finocyl grain shape, similar to VEGA solid rocket motors. The discussion of the results is particularly addressed onthe possible onset of pressure oscillations during the start-up of the two solid rocket motor configurations, pointing out the designparameters which aect them in terms of occurrence and amplitude

Publication year:2014