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CONTENTS

ROCKET DESIGN & ROCKET PROPELLANT OPERATION FORCES ON A ROCKET IN FLIGHT NET THRUST IMPULSE AND SPECIFIC IMPULSE ROCKET EQUATION

ROCKET DESIGN & ROCKET PROPULSION

Rocket consists of a propellant, a place to put propellant & a nozzle. They may also have one or more rocket engines, directional stabilization such as fins, altitude jets, and a structure called monococqe to hold all these components together. They use a nose cone which is used to have aerodynamics. Rocket engines can use propellants, solid propellants, liquid propellants or a hybrid mixture of propellants (both liquid & solid). After the reaction of the propellant, the hot gases are liberated as a result of these gases accelerates out through the engines, exerting force (thrust) on the combustion chamber & nozzle, propelling the vehicle.

ROCKET PROPELLANT:

It is the mass stored in the propellant tank which is ejected out from the rocket engine in the form of a fluid jet to produce thrust. Liquid hydrogen burned with an oxidizer such as liquid oxygen or nitric acid to produce large volumes of very hot gas. Monopropellants are also used such as NO,H2O2 & hydrazine which are catalytically decomposed to produce hot gas.

OPERATION
Rocket thrust is caused by pressures acting on the combustion chamber & nozzle. In a closed chamber, the pressure is equal in each direction and no acceleration occurs. If an opening is provided in the bottom of the chamber then the pressure is no longer acting on the missing section. The remaining pressure gives a resultant thrust on the side opposite the opening, as well as permitting exhaust to escape. This pressure acts on the exhaust in the opposite direction or accelerate this to a very high speed (Newtons third law) Due conservation of momentum the speed of the exhaust of a rocket determines how much momentum increase is created for a given amount of propellant. This is called the rocket specific impulse. Here the total momentum is always constant since no external source is used to its motion.

FORCES ON A ROCKET IN FLIGHT


Flying rockets are primarily affected by the following:

Thurst from the engine(s) Gravity from celestial bodies Drag, if moving in atmosphere (Drag is a force which acts opposite to the direction of the rocket's motion. This will cause a decrease in the acceleration of the vehicle whilst also producing structural loads. Lift

Net Thrust

Due to the supersonic nature of the exhaust jet the exit pressure can be different to ambient atmospheric pressure. Nozzles are said to be (top to bottom): Under expanded (above ambient). Ambient. Over expanded (below ambient). Grossly over expanded. The net thrust equation of a rocket is: Fn= m(dot) ve m(dot)= propellant flow ve= the effective exhaust velocity

IMPULSE AND SPECIFIC IMPULSE

The total impulse of a rocket burning its propellant is simply


As can be seen from the thrust equation the effective speed of the exhaust controls the amount of thrust produced from a particular quantity of fuel burnt per second. An equivalent measure, the net thrust-seconds (impulse) per weight unit of propellant expelled is called specific Impulse "Isp" and this is one of the most important figures that describes a rocket's performance. It is defined such that it is related to the effective exhaust velocity by

I= F dt

ve= Isp. g0

Isp has units of seconds g0 is the acceleration at the surface of the


Earth

Rocket equation
Here we do not consider the external forces and frictional forces due to earth atmosphere which are negligibly small. At t=0 m0=initial mass of the rocket including fuel v0= initial velocity of the rocket m & v be the mass and the velocity of the rocket at time t. According to the principle of the conservation of linear momentum we can write m v = (m- dm) (v + dv) + dm (-vg) Therefore m dv= dm (v+ vg) As the gases are moving in opposite directions therefore v + vg= -u m dv= -u dm-----------------------------------(1) dv =-u dm/m At (t=0 m=m0 & v= v0 ) to (t=t m=m & v= v) and integrating (1) We get v= v0 + v ln (m / m0) This is the rocket equation

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