Instrumentation of UALR labscale hybrid rocket motor

Wright, Andrew B.; Teague, Warfield; Wilson, Edmond W.

doi:10.1117/12.664620

Cited by 5 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 9 publications

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“…The oxidizer delivery system could throttle the mass flow rate of the oxidizer between 18 and 37 g/sec using a Teledyne-Hastings HFC307 mass flow controller. 27 Stanford University developed a custom-made throttling plate for the Peregrine sounding rocket that mates to the injector face inside the injector manifold. 28,29 The plate is rotated to control the oxidizer mass flow rate between 50-100% of the nominal value.…”

Section: Hybrid Rocket Throttling Historymentioning

confidence: 99%

Closed-Loop Thrust and Pressure Profile Throttling of a Nitrous-Oxide HTPB Hybrid Rocket Motor

Peterson¹,

Eilers²,

Whitmore³

2012

48th AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference &Amp;amp; Exhibit

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Hybrid motors that employ non-toxic, non-explosive components with a liquid oxidizer and a solid hydrocarbon fuel grain have inherently safe operating characteristics. The inherent safety of hybrid rocket motors offers the potential to greatly reduce overall operating costs. Another key advantage of hybrid rocket motors is the potential for in flight shutdown, restart, and throttle by controlling the pressure drop between the oxidizer tank and the injector. The proposed research designs, develops, and ground tests a closed-loop throttle controller for a hybrid rocket motor using nitrous oxide and hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene as propellants. The research simultaneously developed closed-loop throttle algorithms and lab scale motor hardware to evaluate the fidelity of the throttle simulations and algorithms. Initial open-loop motor tests were performed to better classify system parameters and to validate motor performance values. Deep-throttle open-loop tests evaluated limits of stable thrust that can be achieved on the test hardware. Open loop tests demonstrated the ability to throttle the motor to less than 10% of maximum thrust with little reduction in effective specific impulse and acoustical stability. Following the openloop development, closed-loop, hardware-in-the-loop tests were performed. The closed loop controller successfully tracked prescribed step and ramp and with a high degree of fidelity.

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Section: Hybrid Rocket Throttling Historymentioning

confidence: 99%

Closed-Loop Thrust and Pressure Profile Throttling of a Nitrous-Oxide HTPB Hybrid Rocket Motor

Peterson¹,

Eilers²,

Whitmore³

2012

48th AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference &Amp;amp; Exhibit

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“…The facility at UALR has aided the aerospace community in numerous studies on hybrid rockets. Studies to characterize the physical parameters of the hybrid rocket such as pressure in pre-combustion and post-combustion chambers, plume flicker, acoustical output, plume emission spectroscopy, and axial thrust have been conducted [1][2][3].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…At an oxygen-to-fuel ratio of 2.074, HTPB burns stoichiometrically to carbon dioxide (CO 2 ) and water vapor (H 2 O). The temperature in the combustion chamber is above 3000 K. With HTPB fuel and a new nozzle, the maximum thrust is approximately 220 N (50 lbf) [1].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A six degree-of-freedom thrust sensor for a labscale hybrid rocket

Wright

Born

Strickland

2013

Meas. Sci. Technol.

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A six degree-of-freedom thrust sensor was designed, constructed, calibrated, and tested using the labscale hybrid rocket at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock. The system consisted of six independent legs: one parallel to the axis of symmetry of the rocket for main thrust measurement, two vertical legs near the nozzle end of the rocket, one vertical leg near the oxygen input end of the rocket, and two separated horizontal legs near the nozzle end. Each leg was composed of a rotational bearing, a load cell, and a universal joint above and below the load cell. The leg was designed to create point contact along only one direction and minimize the non-axial forces applied to the load cell. With this system, force in each direction and moments for roll, pitch, and yaw can be measured. The system was calibrated and tested using a labscale hybrid rocket using gaseous oxygen and hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene solid fuel. The thrust stand proved to be stable during calibration tests. Thrust force vector components and roll, pitch, and yaw moments were calculated for test firings with an oxygen mass flow rate range of 0.0174-0.0348 kg s −1 .

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“…Studies to characterize the physical parameters of the hybrid rocket such as pressure in pre-combustion and postcombustion chambers, plume flicker, acoustical output, plume emission spectroscopy, and axial thrust have been performed at the UALR facility [2][3][4][5][6] .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The function of a thrust stand is to restrain the body yet measure an adequate number of forces to define the thrust vector direction and magnitude. The UALR hybrid rocket facility has measured axial thrust using a custom-designed s-beam sensor element as shown in Figure 1 2 . Thrust was measured using strain gages mounted on four aluminum support beams which supported the rocket.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Design and Calibration of a Six Degree-of-Freedom Thrust Sensor for a Lab-Scale Hybrid Rocket

Wright

Born

Wilson

et al. 2013

51st AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting Including the New Horizons Forum and Aerospace Exposition

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A six degree-of-freedom thrust sensor was designed, constructed, calibrated, and tested using the lab-scale hybrid rocket at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock (UALR). The system consisted of six independent legs: one parallel to the axis of symmetry of the rocket for main thrust measurement, two vertical legs near the nozzle end of the rocket, one vertical leg near the oxygen input end of the rocket, and two separated horizontal legs near the nozzle end. Each leg was composed of a rotational bearing, a load cell, and a universal joint above and below the load cell. The leg was designed to create point contact along only one direction and minimize the non-axial forces applied to the load cell. With this system, force in each direction and moments for roll, pitch, and yaw can be measured. Each load cell was individually calibrated using a dead-weight test bed. The six-load-cell system was calibrated with the rocket in place by applying known forces in each direction and mechanically applied roll, pitch, and yaw motions. Calibration curves show linear load cell reaction in the direction of applied force and isolation in all other directions. The system was tested using a lab-scale hybrid rocket using gaseous oxygen and hydroxyl-terminated polybutadiene (HTPB) solid fuel. The thrust stand proved to be stable during initial firing tests.

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Instrumentation of UALR labscale hybrid rocket motor

Cited by 5 publications

References 9 publications

Closed-Loop Thrust and Pressure Profile Throttling of a Nitrous-Oxide HTPB Hybrid Rocket Motor

Closed-Loop Thrust and Pressure Profile Throttling of a Nitrous-Oxide HTPB Hybrid Rocket Motor

A six degree-of-freedom thrust sensor for a labscale hybrid rocket

Design and Calibration of a Six Degree-of-Freedom Thrust Sensor for a Lab-Scale Hybrid Rocket

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