Assignment Sub Topic Assigned

: Explosives : Propellants, Rockets and Missiles

SUBMITTED BY:
SHIRAZ DAUD

REGISTRATION NO: 2010-CH-87

SUBMITTED TO:
MISS ANAM
SAEED

DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING

1) What are the properties that a propellant must have?

  Propellant ingredients must give High chamber temp and pressure(resistance materials must not available) Gases of low molecular weight The fuel should be one which provides the greatest amount of heat for the smallest amount of weight

2) What type of fuel should be used in the propellants for rockets?

The fuel which should be used for the propulsion of rockets must be the one which provides the greatest amount of heat for the smallest amount of weight.

3) What are the features that characterize the solid propellants for rockets?
 More easily stored ,handled, and serviced.  Simple in design  solid propellant motors can not be shut down. Once ignited. they will burn until all the propellant is exhausted  It is a difficult to build a large mass ratio solid rocket because almost the entire rocket is the combustion chamber, and must be built to withstand the high combustion pressures.  solid-fuel rockets can remain in storage for long periods, and then reliably launch on short notice

4) How can we classify the solid propellants for rockets?

 They are classified into 2 groups  Heterogeneous or composite propellants: (ingredients present in two distinct phases)  Homogeneous or double based (single colloidal phase)

5) What type of propellants are used in high performance rockets and why?
Large high performance rockets now use LOX (Liquid oxygen) and LH2 propellants because of their high impulse and low cost.

6) In what terms we can measure the rate of efficiency of rocket propellants?

The gauge for rating the efficiency of rocket propellants is specific impulse, stated in seconds. Specific impulse indicates how many pounds (or kilograms) of thrust are obtained by the consumption of one pound (or kilogram) of propellant in one second. Specific impulse is characteristic of the type of propellant, however, its exact value will vary to some extent with the operating conditions and design of the rocket engine.

7) What are the advantages of liquid propellant and what properties makes it a good propellant?
 Liquid fueled rockets have higher specific impulse than solid rockets and arecapable of being throttled, shut down, and restarted..  The propellant tanks are at very much less pressure than the combustion chamber, and thus can be built far more lightly than a solid propellant rocket case, permitting a higher mass ratio.  The primary performance advantage of liquid propellants is due to the oxidizer. Several practical liquid oxidizers (liquid oxygen, nitrogen tetroxide, and hydrogen peroxide) are available which have much better specific impulse than the ammonium perchlorate used in most solid rockets, when paired with comparable fuels

8) What type of materials can be used for rocket construction? some propellants are very corrosive which are the materials that are resistant to certain propellants have been identified for use in rocket construction. The toxicity of the propellant is likewise important. Safety hazards exist when handling, transporting, and storing highly toxic compounds. 9) How can we classify liquid propellants? Liquid propellants used in rocketry can be classified into threetypes petroleum, cryogens, and hypergols. Cryogens Cryogenic propellants are liquefied gases stored at very low temperatures, most frequently liquid hydrogen (LH2) as the fuel and liquid oxygen (LO2 or LOX) as the oxidizer. Petroleum fuels Petroleum fuels are those refined from crude oil and are a mixture of complex hydrocarbons, i.e. organic compounds containing only carbon and hydrogen. Hypergols Hypergolic propellants are fuels and oxidizers that ignite spontaneously on contact with each other and require no ignition source. Hypergolic fuels commonly include hydrazine, monomethyl hydrazine (MMH) and unsymmetrical dimethyl hydrazine (UDMH).

10) What are hybrid propellants? Solid propellant motors can not be shut down. Once ignited, they will burn until all the propellant is exhausted.

The main advantage of such engines is that they have high performance, similar to that of solid propellants, but the combustion can be moderated, stopped, or even restarted. It is difficult to make use of this concept for vary large thrusts, and thus, hybrid propellant engines are rarely built. 11) What is the characteristic feature of propellant burning? A characteristic of propellant burning is that it proceeds by layers with the burning front always parallel to the surface. This is known as probers law and this is the law on which the propellant grain depends. EXAMPLE If we consider a long solid cylinder of propellant than as burning proceeds the cylinder remains of the same shape but with the gradually reducing radius. It is clear that the surface of the propellant gradually decreases so that the mass rate of burning of the propellant also decreases. This property is undesirable and many means of avoiding it have been designed. 12) What type of combination is used in tripropellant?  There is the possibility of a tripropellant combination, which takes advantage of the ability of substances with smaller atoms to attain a greater exhaust velocity, and hence propulsive efficiency, at a given temperature.  The most developed tripropellant systems involves adding a third propellant tank containing liquid hydrogen to do this.

13) What properties are determined by the grains of the propellants?

Grain Propellants are used in forms called grains. A grain is any individual particle of propellant regardless of the size or shape. The shape and size of a propellant grain determines the burn time, amount of gas and rate produced from the burning propellant and consequently thrust vs time profile

14) Mention the type of achievable burns? There are three types of burns that can be achieved with different grains. Progressive Burn Usually a grain with multiple perforations or a star cut in the center providing a lot of surface area. Digressive Burn Usually a solid grain in the shape of a cylinder or sphere. Neutral Burn Usually a single perforation; as outside surface decreases the inside surface increases at the same rate 15) What measures are to be taken before using a propellant?  It must always be converted into a dense colloid form.  Finely divided form is a useless material as burns speedily at once.Therefore it must be used by making a dense colloid in a heavy duty mixer. 16) What special properties can a gelled biopropellant system provide? It provides exceptional mission flexibility by permitting on-off modulation and/or continuous throttling of thrust during missile time-of- flight.when combined with

advance seekers,G&C electronics, a smart mission capability is achieved with the following benefits. a) Missile effective range can be extended via energy management(fly longer due to reduce drag at lower speed). b) Terminal velocity can be controlled on demand. c) Throttling capability enables control of maximum acceleration levels across a range of payload and environmental variables lessening the requirements on certain types of seekers and guidance units.

17) Can we say that gel propellants are safer than liquid and solid propellants? Yes we can say that on the following basis: Event Shock Gels insensitive Liquids insensitive Solids Detonation, explosion or deflagration Detonation, explosion or deflagration Cleanup requires breathing apparatus, protective clothing, inerting by burning propellant. Lethal levels of HCl Uncontrolled burns,deflagration

Bullet or fragment impact Spill in a close space toxicity

Interface burns Full load burns until contact ceases until depleted Vaporization rate slow enough to allow donning of breathing apparatus/inerting/ cleanup No toxic products Load burns until depleted Reaches lethal vapour levels in a short time.

Combustion in a closed system Fire, cook off

No toxic products Load burns until depleted