NUMERICAL ANALYSIS OF FUEL REGRESSION RATE IN HYBRID ROCKET MOTOR WITH STAR SHAPE PORT FUEL GRAIN

Abstract

Hybrid Rocket Motor (HRM) has a critical weakness that impacts performance: low regression rate. Due to this, extensive investigation has been done on the star-shaped port fuel grain to enhance the regression rate. Several simulations using Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) have been done on 5-, 6-, and 8-vertice star-shaped port fuel grain under several initial conditions to study the impact on the regression rate. The regression rate of the 6-vertice star is the highest in all three types, and the 5-vertice star is the lowest. The results show that the corner's angle in the star shape affects the combustion temperature. The temperature in the corners is lower than in other parts of the star. The regression rate of the 6-vertice star is the greatest because it has the largest corner angle of 60 degrees, and the 5-vertice star has the smallest corner angle of 36 degrees.