Types of Propulsion Systems:
A Quick Overview
Gas Storage Tank
Gas Exhaust Nozzle
Pressure
Regulator
Actuator Valve
for Gas Flow
MAE 5930, Rocket Systems Design 1
Review: Thrust Equation
•
F m e Ve pe Ae p Ae
•
• Thrust + Oxidizer enters combustion
mi 0 Chamber at ~0 velocity, combustion
Adds energy … High Chamber pressure
Accelerates flow through Nozzle
Resultant pressure forces produce thrust
MAE 5930, Rocket Systems Design 2
Maximum Available Thrust
MAE 5930, Rocket Systems Design 3
Review: Specific Impulse
• Specific Impulse rocket’s Ability to deliver a certain
(specific) impulse for a given weight of
t propellant
Impulse Fthrust dt g0 9.806
m
sec 2
(mks)
I sp t
0
g0 M propellant •
g0 m propellant dt
• At a constant altitude, with 0
Constant mass flow through engine Mean specific impulse
t
Impulse F thrust dt
Fthrust
I sp t
0
•
g0 M propellant •
g0 m propellant
g0 m propellant dt
0
MAE 5930, Rocket Systems Design
• Instantaneous specific impulse
4
Review: Rocket Equation
V V final V0 M 0 M final m propellant
V g0 I sp ln 1
m propellant g I ln 1 P
M final
0 sp mf
Pmf "propellant mass fraction"
m propellant Is also called
• Sometimes propellant mass
M final m propellant
Fraction or “load mass fraction”
MAE 5930, Rocket Systems Design 5
Specific Impulse (Revisited)
MAE 5930, Rocket Systems Design 6
5 Types of Chemical Thrusters
• Cold Gas
• Monopropellant
• Bipropellant
• Solid
• Hybrid
MAE 5930, Rocket Systems Design 7
Cold Gas Thrusters
• The balloon model: A big tank of gas, a valve, and a nozzle.
• Used on early satellites for simplicity
• Isp of 50 seconds
• thrust less than a pound
MAE 5930, Rocket Systems Design 8
Cold Gas Thrusters
Gas Storage Tank
• No Combustion
• Thrust provided by
Gas Exhaust Nozzle expansion of gas
Pressure through Nozzle
Regulator
• Low Isp
Actuator Valve
for Gas Flow • Simple Mechanism
MAE 5930, Rocket Systems Design 9
Monopropellant systems
• Often used for
spacecraft RCS
system
MAE 5930, Rocket Systems Design 10
Monopropellant systems
• Often used for
spacecraft RCS
system
MAE 5930, Rocket Systems Design 11
Monopropellant Thrusters
• An unstable chemical that will decompose
exothermically in the presence of a catalyst.
• The chemical needs to be unstable, but not too
unstable.
• V2 used hydrogen peroxide, but it decomposes in
storage, leading to overpressures and water.
• Current systems use Hydrazine, which decomposes
into Hydrogen, nitrogen, and ammonia in the
presence of iridium. Isp is on the order of 230, and
total thrust can reach hundreds of lbs.
MAE 5930, Rocket Systems Design 12
Typical Solid and Liquid Rockets
MAE 5930, Rocket Systems Design 13
Bi-propellant System
• Bi-prop offers the
most performance (Isp
as high as 450 sec)
and the most
versatility. They also
offer the most failure
modes and the highest
price tags.
• Almost all first stage
liquid rockets are Bi-
prop.
MAE 5930, Rocket Systems Design 14
Bi-Prop plumbing
Turbine Fed Pressure Fed
MAE 5930, Rocket Systems Design 15
Solid Rocket Motors
MAE 5930, Rocket Systems Design 16
Solid Rocket Motors
• The oxidizer and fuel are stored in the combustion chamber
as a mechanical mixture in solid form
• Two conditions for use:
– The total Impulse is known accurately in advance
– Restart is not required
• Elements include: Case, Igniter, Grain, Nozzle,
liner/insulation
• Black Powder
• Composite Propellant: organic binders, aluminum powder, and
an oxidizer (usually ammonium perchlorate - NH4CIO4.) The
binders are rubberlike polymers that are both fuel and binder.
MAE 5930, Rocket Systems Design 17
Burning Patterns
MAE 5930, Rocket Systems Design 18
Thrust Profiles
MAE 5930, Rocket Systems Design 19
SHAPE OF PROPELLANT GRAINS QUENCHED AT DIFFERENT TIMES
Start condition Quenched at 1.5 s Quenched at 2.5 s
MAE 5930, Rocket Systems Design 20
The “Bates Grain” Geometry
Simple Modification to Cylindrical Port to Give More
Even Burn Pattern
Grain segments burn from
“inside” and along the “ends”
Most NAR-certified solid-grain motors use this pattern
MAE 5930, Rocket Systems Design 21
Hybrid Motors
• Relatively Low Isp, Capable of High Thrust
• Throttleable, Restartable, Limited explosion potential
•Very difficult to precisely regulate delivered impulse for
pressure fed systems
MAE 5930, Rocket Systems Design 22
Space Dev® Hybrid Powered
“Spaceship 1” (cont’d)
• Built by Burt Rutan (Scaled Composites®) with Paul Allen’s (Apple co founder)
Money in Mojave CA SS1 wrote history, when the first private suborbital
spaceflight was conducted on June 21, 2004 (with pilot Mike Melvill).
• SS1 won the X-Prize with flights on 29.09.2004 (Melville)
and a follow up flight on 04.10.2004. (Brian Binneie)
• Powered by a 16700 lbf thrust Hybrid Motor (SpaceDev)
MAE 5930, Rocket Systems Design 23
System Weight Comparison
MAE 5930, Rocket Systems Design 24
Propellant Comparisons
MAE 5930, Rocket Systems Design 25
The Optimum Nozzle
Aexit
V exit ∝ *
•
A
for given m →
1 Aexit
∝ *
Pexit A
→ both {V exit , Pexit } contribute to thrust
Aexit
→ what * is "optim al"?
A
MAE 5930, Rocket Systems Design 26
Operating Pressure
MAE 5930, Rocket Systems Design 27
Effect of Operating Pressure on
Conventional Nozzle Performance
Credit: Aerospace web
MAE 5930, Rocket Systems Design 28
The "Optimum
Nozzle”
MAE 5930, Rocket Systems Design 29
MAE 5930, Rocket Systems Design 30
… Which leads us to The Aerospike Rocket Nozzle
the … real alternative
"The Linear Aerospike
Rocket Engine"
MAE 5930, Rocket Systems Design 31
MAE 5930, Rocket Systems Design 32
Linear Aerospike Rocket
Engine Nozzle has same
effect as telescope nozzle
MAE 5930, Rocket Systems Design 33
Advantages of Aerospike Nozzle
• Truncated aerospike nozzles can be as short as 25%
the length of a conventional bell nozzle.
– Provide savings in packing volume and weight
for space vehicles.
• Aerospike nozzles allow higher expansion ratio
than conventional nozzle for a given space vehicle
base area.
– Increase vacuum thrust and specific impulse.
• For in-space operations, advanced nozzles can
increase the thrust and specific impulse by 5-6%, Comparison of F-1 Engine
resulting in a 8-9% decrease in propellant mass. (Apollo Saturn V) to
• Lower total vehicle mass and provide extra margin Proposed J 2T-250K
Replacement Aerospike
for the mass inclusion of other critical vehicle
Engine
systems.
• New nozzle technology also applicable to RCS,
space tugs, etc…
MAE 5930, Rocket Systems Design 34
Performance Comparison
• Although less than Ideal
The significant Isp recovery
of Spike Nozzles offer significant
advantage
Annular “Plug” aerospike
MAE 5930, Rocket Systems Design 35
Annular Aerospike Design
MAE 5930, Rocket Systems Design 36
Ideal Aerospike Design
MAE 5930, Rocket Systems Design 37
Ideal Aerospike Design (2)
MAE 5930, Rocket Systems Design 38
Off Design Operation (1)
MAE 5930, Rocket Systems Design 39
Off Design Operation (2)
MAE 5930, Rocket Systems Design 40
Off Design Operation (1)
MAE 5930, Rocket Systems Design 41
Spikes That Have Actually Flown
MAE 5930, Rocket Systems Design 42
Effects of Spike Truncation
Truncation allows for
VERY SHORT LENGTH
FOR A GIVEN
EXPANSION RATIO
MAE 5930, Rocket Systems Design 43
Effects of Spike Truncation (2)
MAE 5930, Rocket Systems Design 44
Effects of Spike Truncation (3)
Truncation DOES NOT PRESENT A GREAT PENALTY
MAE 5930, Rocket Systems Design 45
Effects of Spike Truncation (4)
MAE 5930, Rocket Systems Design 46
Spike Nozzle … Other advantages
• Thrust vectoring without Gimbals
Credit: Aerospace web
MAE 5930, Rocket Systems Design 47
Spike on the “Javelin”
•Aerospike for Cold-gas
augmentation thruster
is a “Natural Fit” for the
Javelin
•Spike integrates onto
Aft eng of the vehicle
•Wraps around attach
ring of main motor
nozzle
•Thruster plenums may
be sectors or possibly a
Full annulus
MAE 5930, Rocket Systems Design 48
Spike on the “Javelin”
~92% Spike Truncation
MAE 5930, Rocket Systems Design 49
Questions??
50
MAE 5930, Rocket Systems Design
