• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.43 no.8
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• pp.684-691
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• 2015

A sudden increase in combustion pressure is observed in the ducted rocket combustion test equipped with pipe shaped and converging nozzle exhaust tubes. This study aims to understand the physical mechanism of abrupt change in combustion pressure using thermal choking in the exhaust tube. Results confirmed that the thermal choking of the flow inside the exhaust tube was responsible for the sudden increase in combustion pressure. Also, high pressure exponent of solid propellants is critical sensitive to the occurrence of thermal choking exhaust pipe. Additionally, numerical simulation showed that the sudden increase in combustion pressure was less possible in diverging pipe because thermal choking is more reluctant to occur.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.21-27
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• 2017

In this paper, in order to control the burning rate and pressure exponent of HTPB/AP/Al based propellant for the improvement of performance, the effect of the size ratio of AP particles and various contents of Butacene as burning catalyst on combustion properties was investigated. In the propellant formulation with both $28{\mu}m$ Al of 23% and Butacene of 3%, the burning rate and pressure exponent were increased with increasing the contents of $9{\mu}m$ AP particles. And the burning rate was increased with increasing the contents of Butacene with showing the relatively low pressure exponent in the propellant containing Butacene. However, the significant variations of pressure exponent by contents of Butacene were not observed.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.21 no.4
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• pp.12-20
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• 2017

The ablation characteristics of graphite nozzle throat insert was analyzed for the use in solid rocket propulsion system. The propulsion system was composed of three types of conventional nozzles, such as De-Laval type, blast tube type, and submerged type. Various kinds of propellants were used in ten kinds of propulsion system that had different shapes with each other. Total forty eight tests were performed. From the results of the analysis, it was found that the ablation rate was increased for the higher average chamber pressure and the higher oxidizer mole fraction. A useful correlation for nozzle throat ablation rate was developed in terms of the chamber pressure, oxidizer mole fraction, and throat size. The calculated ablation rates from the correlation showed agreement within ${\pm}0.10mm/s$ with the experimentally determined values.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.24 no.3
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• pp.12-17
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• 2020

The mechanical properties of the propellant with yellow iron oxide were slightly increased compared to the propellant with red iron oxide. The propellant with yellow iron oxide used two types of AP. As the ratio of small particles of AP increased, the burning rate increased. The propellant may be applied to the propellant under operating conditions of 17.5 mm/sec or less having a pressure index of 0.5. The burning rate downs in the mixer scale-up. The stress at maximum load of propellant decreased and the strain at maximum load increased in the mixer scale-up. The yellow iron oxide did not affect the adhesive force between the insulation/liner/propellant.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.24 no.4
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• pp.41-47
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• 2020

This study aims to develop eco-friendly propellant that reduce the generation of harmful gases such as HCl gas and increase the emmision of nitrogen gas emissions. For this purpose, GUDN(N-Guanylurea dinitramide) and BTATz(3,6-bis(1H-1,2,3,4-tetrazol-5-ylamino)-1,2,4,5-tetrazine), which are low carbon high nitrogen materials, were used instead of AP(Ammonium Perchlorate) and Al(Aluminium), which are gernerally used in solid propellant. The prepared propellants were analyzed for mechanical properties and combustion characteristics, performance and AGARD smoke classification. Compared with AP/Al propellant, GUDN/BTATz propellant tended to decrease mechanical and combustion rate. Also, as a result of the static test after the production of the 4-inch motor, the performance of combustion of the GUDN/BTATz propellant decreased, but it was confirmed that the secondary smoke was improved by reducing harmful gases such as HCl gas.

• Applied Chemistry for Engineering
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• v.27 no.3
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• pp.227-238
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• 2016

This review article highlights different types of nano-sized catalysts for the selective alcohol oxidation to form aldehydes (or ketones) with supported or immobilized metal nanoparticles. Metal nanoparticle catalysts are obtained through dispersing metal nanoparticles over a solid support with a large surface area. The nanocatalysts have wide technological applications to industrial and academic fields such as organic synthesis, fuel cells, biodiesel production, oil cracking, energy conversion and storage, medicine, water treatment, solid rocket propellants, chemicals and dyes. One of main reactions for the nanocatalyst is an aerobic oxidation of alcohols to produce important intermediates for various applications. The oxidation of alcohols by supported nanocatalysts including gold, palladium, ruthenium, and vanadium is very economical, green and environmentally benign reaction leading to decrease byproducts and reduce the cost of reagents as opposed to stoichiometric reactions. In addition, the room temperature alcohol oxidation using nanocatalysts is introduced.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2011.04a
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• pp.1-2
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• 2011

Hybrid rockets have lately attracted attention as a strong candidate of small, low cost, safe and reliable launch vehicles. A significant topic is that the first commercially sponsored space ship, SpaceShipOne vehicle chose a hybrid rocket. The main factors for the choice were safety of operation, system cost, quick turnaround, and thrust termination. In Japan, five universities including Hokkaido University and three private companies organized "Hybrid Rocket Research Group" from 1998 to 2002. Their main purpose was to downsize the cost and scale of rocket experiments. In 2002, UNISEC (University Space Engineering Consortium) and HASTIC (Hokkaido Aerospace Science and Technology Incubation Center) took over the educational and R&D rocket activities respectively and the research group dissolved. In 2008, JAXA/ISAS and eleven universities formed "Hybrid Rocket Research Working Group" as a subcommittee of the Steering Committee for Space Engineering in ISAS. Their goal is to demonstrate technical feasibility of lowcost and high frequency launches of nano/micro satellites into sun-synchronous orbits. Hybrid rockets use a combination of solid and liquid propellants. Usually the fuel is in a solid phase. A serious problem of hybrid rockets is the low regression rate of the solid fuel. In single port hybrids the low regression rate below 1 mm/s causes large L/D exceeding a hundred and small fuel loading ratio falling below 0.3. Multi-port hybrids are a typical solution to solve this problem. However, this solution is not the mainstream in Japan. Another approach is to use high regression rate fuels. For example, a fuel regression rate of 4 mm/s decreases L/D to around 10 and increases the loading ratio to around 0.75. Liquefying fuels such as paraffins are strong candidates for high regression fuels and subject of active research in Japan too. Nakagawa et al. in Tokai University employed EVA (Ethylene Vinyl Acetate) to modify viscosity of paraffin based fuels and investigated the effect of viscosity on regression rates. Wada et al. in Akita University employed LTP (Low melting ThermoPlastic) as another candidate of liquefying fuels and demonstrated high regression rates comparable to paraffin fuels. Hori et al. in JAXA/ISAS employed glycidylazide-poly(ethylene glycol) (GAP-PEG) copolymers as high regression rate fuels and modified the combustion characteristics by changing the PEG mixing ratio. Regression rate improvement by changing internal ballistics is another stream of research. The author proposed a new fuel configuration named "CAMUI" in 1998. CAMUI comes from an abbreviation of "cascaded multistage impinging-jet" meaning the distinctive flow field. A CAMUI type fuel grain consists of several cylindrical fuel blocks with two ports in axial direction. The port alignment shifts 90 degrees with each other to make jets out of ports impinge on the upstream end face of the downstream fuel block, resulting in intense heat transfer to the fuel. Yuasa et al. in Tokyo Metropolitan University employed swirling injection method and improved regression rates more than three times higher. However, regression rate distribution along the axis is not uniform due to the decay of the swirl strength. Aso et al. in Kyushu University employed multi-swirl injection to solve this problem. Combinations of swirling injection and paraffin based fuel have been tried and some results show very high regression rates exceeding ten times of conventional one. High fuel regression rates by new fuel, new internal ballistics, or combination of them require faster fuel-oxidizer mixing to maintain combustion efficiency. Nakagawa et al. succeeded to improve combustion efficiency of a paraffin-based fuel from 77% to 96% by a baffle plate. Another effective approach some researchers are trying is to use an aft-chamber to increase residence time. Better understanding of the new flow fields is necessary to reveal basic mechanisms of regression enhancement. Yuasa et al. visualized the combustion field in a swirling injection type motor. Nakagawa et al. observed boundary layer combustion of wax-based fuels. To understand detailed flow structures in swirling flow type hybrids, Sawada et al. (Tohoku Univ.), Teramoto et al. (Univ. of Tokyo), Shimada et al. (ISAS), and Tsuboi et al. (Kyushu Inst. Tech.) are trying to simulate the flow field numerically. Main challenges are turbulent reaction, stiffness due to low Mach number flow, fuel regression model, and other non-steady phenomena. Oshima et al. in Hokkaido University simulated CAMUI type flow fields and discussed correspondence relation between regression distribution of a burning surface and the vortex structure over the surface.