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Compressibility effects of unreacted propellant on thermally choked ram accelerator performance

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 December 2002

P. Bauer  and
C. Knowlen
P. Bauer*
Affiliation:
Laboratoire de Combustion et de Détonique (UPR 9028 du CNRS) – ENSMA – BP 109, 86960 Futuroscope Cedex, France
C. Knowlen
Affiliation:
University of Washington (AERP) - Box 352250, Seattle, WA, 98195-2250, USA
*
bauer@lcd.esma.fr knowlen@aa.washington.edu
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Abstract

Thrust calculations of the thermally choked ram accelerator propulsive mode basedon quasi-steady, one-dimensional modeling of the flow process have been quite successful inpredicting the experimental velocity-distance profile when real gas corrections are appliedto the combustion products of propellants at initial fill pressures up to 8 MPa. A furtherrefinement of the modeling takes into account real gas corrections for the initial state athigher fill pressures. It turns out that the Redlich-Kwong equation of state accuratelydetermines the thermodynamic properties of the unreacted propellant for fill pressures up toat least 20 MPa. Using this equation of state for the calculation of the sound speed for atypical ${\rm CH}_4/{\rm O}_2/{\rm N}_2$ propellant provides a 15% higher value at 20 MPathan that predicted for an ideal gas; this increase significantly affects the operatingcharacteristics of the ram accelerator at a given velocity. The corresponding thrust maximumincreases by 30%. This corrected theory is most appropriate under conditions of highpressure operation at relatively low acceleration levels; i.e., less than 10 000 g. The corrections to theaerothermodynamic equations that are discussed in this paper are fully generalized and can beapplied using any equation of state.

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Type
Research Article
Information
The European Physical Journal - Applied Physics , Volume 21 , Issue 3 , March 2003 , pp. 233 - 238
Copyright
© EDP Sciences, 2003

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References

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