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Solid Rocket Motor Theory -- Chamber Pressure
Chamber Pressure
The Chamber Pressure that a rocket motor develops is of crucial
importance with regard to the successful operation of a rocket motor.
Not only does Chamber Pressure strongly influence propellant burn
rate, thermodynamic efficiency and thrust, the Chamber Pressure
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structurally loads the rocket motor casing and closures to a critical
extent. Understanding the nature of Chamber Pressure generation,
and accurate prediction of such, is one of the keys to successful
rocket motor design.
What causes pressure to develop inside the chamber of a rocket
motor? What determines the magnitude of this pressure? Intuitively,
the pressure buildup is a result of the combustion of the propellant
grain, whereby the gases produced hasten to escape through the
nozzle throat. If the throat is sufficiently small, the gases cannot
escape quickly enough and the accumulation of gases in the chamber
results in pressurization.
In actuality, the intuitive explanation is essentially correct. However,
an important factor that determines the magnitude of chamber
pressure is not at all intuitive -- the concept of choked flow. This
concept provides for a convenient means to calculate chamber
pressure, and is valid for both transient and steady-state modes of
motor operation, as discussed below.
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By looking at a plot of Chamber Pressure over the operating duration
of a rocket motor (Figure 1), one sees that there are three distinct and
important phases of operation:
Figure 1 -- Motor chamber pressure
The pressure curve of the rocket motor exhibits transient and steady-
state behaviour. The transient phases are when the pressure varies
substantially with time -- during the ignition and start-up phase, and
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following complete (or nearly complete) grain consumption, when
the pressure falls down to ambient level during the tail-off phase. The
variation of chamber pressure during the steady-state burning phase
is due mainly to variation of grain geometry (burning surface area)
with associated burn rate variation. Other factors may play a role,
however, such as nozzle throat erosion and erosive burn rate
augmentation.
First of all, the start-up and steady-state pressure phases will be
considered. The start-up phase is hypothetically very brief, although
in reality, ignition of the complete grain does not occur
instantaneously. The actual duration of the start-up phase is strongly
dependant upon the effectiveness of the igniter system employed.
The steady-state phase clearly dominates the overall performance of
the motor, and as such, constitutes the design condition.
In determining the start-up pressure growth, and the steady-state
pressure level, it is first noted that the rate of combustion product
generation is equal to the rate of consumption of the propellant grain,
given by:
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equation 1
where p is the propellant density, Ab is the grain burning area, and
r is the propellant burn rate (surface regression rate).
It is important to note that the combustion products may consist of
both gaseous and condensed-phase mass. The condensed-phase,
which manifests itself as smoke, may be either solid or liquid
particles. Only the gaseous products contribute to pressure
development. The condensed-phase certainly does, however,
contribute to the thrust (overall performance) of the rocket motor,
due to its mass and velocity, as shown in equation 1 of the Thrust
Theory Web page.
The rate at which combustion products are increasingly stored
within the combustion chamber is given by:
equation 2
where o is the instantaneous gas density in the chamber, and uo is
the instantaneous gas volume (which is equal to the free volume
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within the chamber).
The change in gas volume with respect to time is equal to the change
in volume due to propellant consumption, given by duo/dt = Ab r. This
leads to:
equation 3
The rate at which combustion products flow through the nozzle
throat is limited by the condition of choked flow. As described in the
Nozzle Theory Web Page, the flow achieves sonic (Mach 1) velocity
at the narrowest portion of the convergent-divergent nozzle (throat).
Flow velocity, at this location, can never exceed the local speed of
sound, and is said to be in a choked condition. This allows us to
determine the rate at which the combustion products flow through
the nozzle is given by equation 4: (for derivation, see Theory
Appendix D )
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equation 4
Note that R = R'/ M, where R' is the universal gas constant, and M is
the effective molecular weight of the combustion products. Mass flow
rate through the nozzle is seen to be a function of the chamber
pressure (which determines the flow density), throat area, and the
gas properties (which establish sonic velocity).
The principle of mass conservation requires the balance between
mass generation rate and the sum of the rates at which mass storage
in the chamber and outflow through the nozzle:
equation 5
Substituting equations 1 & 3 into equation 5 gives:
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equation 6
Propellant burn rate may be expressed in terms of the chamber
pressure by the Saint Robert's law (see Propellant Burn Rate Web
Page):
r = a Po n equation 7
where a and n are the burn rate coefficient and pressure exponent,
respectively. Substituting equations 7 & 4 (mass flowrate through
nozzle) into equation 6 leads to the following equation:
equation 8
From the ideal gas law, the density derivative in the above equation
may be expressed as:
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equation 9
As well, considering that chamber temperature, To, is essentially
independent of chamber pressure, equation 8 may be re-written as:
equation 10
This is a particularly useful equation, as it allows us to determine the
rate of change of chamber pressure (dPo/ dt ) during the transient
start-up phase of motor operation, where the chamber pressure is
rapidly climbing up to the operating steady-state level. Once the
steady-state phase is reached, when the outflow of combustion gases
is in equilibrium with the production of gases from propellant
consumption, dPo/ dt = 0, and the left-hand side of equation 10
vanishes. The steady-state chamber pressure may then be expressed
as:
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equation 11
Note that the combustion product density term has been dropped, as
it is small in comparison to the propellant density.
Equation 11 may be greatly simplified by use of equation 7, letting Kn
= Ab /A* and by noting that the characteristic exhaust velocity (c-star)
is given by:
This leads to the simplified expression for steady-state chamber
pressure:
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equation 12
where r is the burn rate at the chamber pressure, Po and noting that
Kn = Ab/A*. It is important to note that burn rate, r, is a function of
chamber pressure. As such, chamber pressure is not a direct function
of Kn, rather for a given propellant, the relationship is:
equation 12a
where C is a constant relating the propellant properties:
equation 12b
The third and final phase of the pressure curve, the tail-down phase,
ideally occurs immediately after the propellant grain has been
completely consumed. In actuality, slivers or fragments of propellant
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grain remain once the bulk of the grain has been consumed. This
results in a pressure tail-down that is more gradual than for the ideal
case. However, it is impractical to account for this effect, and the tail-
down pressure is determined on the assumption that the grain has
been fully depleted.
After burnout , when Ab = 0, equation 10 becomes
equation 13
This differential equation may then be solved to express tail-off
chamber pressure as a function of bleeddown time for choked flow:
equation 14
where Pbo is the chamber pressure at burn-out and t is the time from
burn-out. The pressure is seen to exhibit exponential decay.
In addition to the consequence of sliver burning during tail-off,
nozzle slagging will tend to make the pressure decay more gradual
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than predicted by equation 14. Nozzle slagging is the tendency of
condensed-phase (in particular liquid matter) to accumulate around
the throat, effectively reducing the diameter. Slagging is more
significant during tail-off due to the dropping pressure level and
lower exhaust velocity.
An example of steady-state chamber pressure calculation, for the
Kappa-DX motor, is provided in Theory Appendix E.
Worked Examples
Worked Example #7 - Calculate the ideal chamber pressure for a
rocket motor having a kn = 180. The propellant is KNSU.
Worked Example #7
Worked Example #8 - Calculate the ideal chamber pressure for a
rocket motor having a kn = 350. The propellant is KNSB.
Worked Example #8
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Next -- Two-phase Flow
Originally posted July 5, 2001
Last updated June 13, 2023
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