The application of emission spectroscopy to monitor combustion products of solid rocket propellant combustion can potentially yield valuable data about reactions occurring within the volatile environment of a strand burner. This information can be applied in the solid rocket propellant industry. The current study details the implementation of a compact spectrometer and fiber optic cable to investigate the visible emission generated from three variations of solid propellants. The grating was blazed for a wavelength range from 200 to 800 nm, and the spectrometer system provides time resolutions on the order of 1 millisecond. One propellant formula contained a fine aluminum powder, acting as a fuel, mixed with ammonium perchlorate (AP), an oxidizer. The powders were held together with Hydroxyl-Terminated-Polybutadiene (HTPB), a hydrocarbon polymer that is solidified using a curative after all components are homogeneously mixed. The other two propellants did not contain aluminum, but rather relied on the HTPB as a fuel source. The propellants without aluminum differed in that one contained a bimodal mix of AP. Utilizing smaller particle sizes within solid propellants yields greater surface area contact between oxidizer and fuel, which ultimately promotes faster burning. Each propellant was combusted in a controlled, non-reactive environment at a range of pressures between 250 and 2000 psi. The data allow for accurate burning rate calculations as well as an opportunity to analyze the combustion region through the emission spectroscopy diagnostic. It is shown that the new diagnostic identifies the differences between the aluminized and non-aluminized propellants through the appearance of aluminum oxide emission bands. Anomalies during a burn are also verified through the optical emission spectral data collected.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ucf.edu/oai:stars.library.ucf.edu:etd-1781 |
| Date | 01 January 2006 |
| Creators | Arvanetes, Jason |
| Publisher | STARS |
| Source Sets | University of Central Florida |
| Language | English |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Source | Electronic Theses and Dissertations |
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