Solid propellant exhausted aluminum oxide and hydrogen chloride - Environmental considerations

Experimental techniques for characterization of particles in plumes of sub-scale solid rocket motors

“…Particles morphological and physical changes can occur even outside the nozzle, after getting in touch with the external atmosphere due to exhaust plume expansion, interactions with shock waves, afterburning effects, and sudden cooling. All these aspects are influenced by primary propellant and combustion properties (such as aluminum mass loading, residence time, efficiency of the combustion process, combustion chamber pressure, and throat diameters [9,33]) and by nozzle operating conditions (altitude and nozzle geometry [34]).…”

“…Most of the numerical or modelling activities involving SRM multiphase exhaust flow retrieves particle size distribution data from empirical correlations, theoretical models, or limiting assumptions [33]. All of the prior art on rocket-produced Al 2 O 3 particles referred to exhaust from sub-scale rocket motor firings [35,36,37,38,39,40], surface or ground cloud collections from Titan [41] and Space Shuttle [34,42] launches, or measurements and analysis from mid-tropospheric and stratospheric plumes [18,19,41,43].…”