NUMERICAL STUDIES ON COMBUSTION INSTABILITY

OF SOLID ROCKET MOTOR

A PROJECT REPORT-PHASE-I (AE1610)
Submitted by

GAUTHAM P
0001228003
in partial fulfillment for the award of the degree
of

MASTER OF TECHNOLOGY
in

AERONAUTICAL ENGINEERING

DEPARTMENT OF AERONAUTICAL ENGINEERING

SCHOOL OF AERONAUTICAL SCIENCES

HINDUSTAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE

PADUR, CHENNAI - 603 103
NOVEMBER 2013

NUMERICAL STUDIES ON COMBUSTION INSTABILITY

OF SOLID ROCKET MOTOR
A PROJECT REPORT-PHASE-I (AE1610)
Submitted by

GAUTHAM P
(1228003)
in partial fulfillment for the award of the degree
of

MASTER OF TECHNOLOGY
in

AERONAUTICAL ENGINEERING

DEPARTMENT OF AERONAUTICAL ENGINEERING

SCHOOL OF AERONAUTICAL SCIENCES

HINDUSTAN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY AND SCIENCE

PADUR, CHENNAI - 603 103
NOVEMBER 2013

HINDUSTAN UNIVERSITY: PADUR, CHENNAI - 603 103

BONAFIDE CERTIFICATE
Certified

that

this

project

report

titled

NUMERICAL

STUDIES

ON

COMBUSTION INSTABILITY OF SOLID ROCKET MOTOR is the bonafide

work of P.GAUTHAM (Register No: 1228003) who carried out the project work
under my supervision. Certified further that to the best of my knowledge the work
reported here does not form part of any other project / research work on the basis of
which a degree or award was conferred on an earlier occasion on this or any other
candidate.

HEAD OF THE DEPARTMENT

Dr. Dilip A. Shah,
Department of Aeronautical
Engineering

SUPERVISOR
Mr. Yash Pal
Assistant professor
Department of Aeronautical
Engineering

Hindustan Institute of
Technology and Science, Padur

Hindustan Institute of Technology

and Science, Padur

The Project Phase I Viva-Voce Examination is held on _______________

INTERNAL EXAMINER

EXTERNAL EXAMINER

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
First and foremost I would like to thank the Lord Almighty for His presence and immense blessings
throughout the project work.
Its a matter of pride and privilege for me to express my deep gratitude to the management of HITS
for providing me the necessary facilities and support.
I am highly elated in expressing my sincere and abundant respect to the Vice Chancellor
Dr.Ramachandran for giving me this opportunity to bring out and implement my ideas in this
project.
I wish to express my heartfelt gratitude to Dr.Dilip A Shah, Head of the Department of Aeronautical
Engineering for much of his valuable support encouragement in carrying out this work.
I would like to thank my internal guide Mr. Yash Pal, for continually guiding and actively
participating in my project, giving valuable suggestions to complete the project work.
I would like to thank all the technical and teaching staff of the Aeronautical Engineering
Department, who extended directly or indirectly all support.
Last, but not the least, I am deeply indebted to my parents who have been the greatest support while
I worked day and night for the project to make it a success.

LIST OF FIGURES
Figure 1.1

Solid rocket cross section

Figure 1.2

Krmn Vortex Street

Figure 2.1.1

Model geometry of SRM

Figure 2.1.2

Computational domain with boundary conditions

Figure 2.1.3

Contours of vorticity magnitude for fully turbulent calculations

Figure 2.1.4

Turbulent production disabled zone

Figure 2.2.1

General view of the Ariane 5 solid rocket motor (P230).

Figure 2.2.2

Typical results for the P230.

Figure 2.2.3

Typical set of experimental results obtained with the LP6 set-up

Figure 2.2.4

Three main situations of pressure oscillations obtained

by using numerical simulations

Figure 3.1

Scale model of a Solid Rocket Motor

Figure 3.2

Computational domain with boundary conditions

Figure 3.3

Model designed in Gambit

LIST OF TABLES
Table 3.1
Table 3.2

Dimension for model geometry in X-Y direction.

BOUNDARY CONDITIONS:

ABSTRACT
Solid rockets are known to be prone to fluid dynamic and combustion instabilities. The coupling of
flow instabilities with acoustic resonance in internal flows can result in self sustained oscillations.
The shear layer generated in the corner of the rearward-facing step is unstable and leads to periodic
vortex shedding which is the primary cause of aero acoustic oscillations in the rocket motor. If
frequency of this shedding coincides with the natural acoustic modes of the geometry, then the
oscillations would be self-sustaining and the amplitudes of these oscillations would grow. The
objective of this project is to investigate the frequencies of the oscillations in combustion chamber of
solid rocket motor. The Numerical simulation will be carried out in fluent and reported results will
be compared with experimental model of Shanbhogue et al [1].

TABLE OF CONTENTS
CHAPTER
NO.

TITLE

PAGE NO.

iv
List of Figures

List of Tables

vi

Abstract
1

INTRODUCTION

LITERATURE SURVEY

METHODOLOGY

FUTURE ENHANCEMENT AND CONCLUSION

References

Chapter-1
INTRODUCTION

* Introduction about combustion stability

*Types of combustion stability
The operation of a solid rocket motor is initiated by igniting the grain, which triggers
combustion. Once combustion begins, the hot gases flow radially opposite to the direction of grain
regression. These gases travel along the length of the motor and are finally expanded in the nozzle.
During the burning process, due to the differing burning rates, step(s) are formed in the burning
front. The sharp corner of the step induces the formation of shear layers in the flowing hot gases.
These shear layers are highly unstable and thus roll up into vortices. These vortices are advected
towards the nozzle end and impinge on the wall. This periodic shedding of the vortices and their
impingement on the walls within the confined chamber gives rise to flow oscillations and acoustic
phenomena. A sectional view of a typical solid rocket motor is shown in the figure 1.

Figure 1 Solid rocket cross section

During the development of solid rocket motors in the late 1930s and early 1940s, test firings
were often marked by erratic behavior. This included unexpected shifts in the mean pressure,
structural vibrations and visible changes in the exhaust plume. That these anomalies were somehow
the result of acoustic waves in the gaseous products of combustion was hypothesized (e.g., Boys and
Schofield [8]; Grad [9]) and later established experimentally (e.g., Swanson [10]; Smith and
Sprenger [11]) using high-bandwidth pressure transducers. In lieu of a smooth time evolution of
chamber pressure, for which the systems were designed, large amplitude pressure oscillations with
frequencies close to the natural acoustic resonances of the chamber were observed. Much of the
research in the field since has focused on understanding the underlying mechanisms of, and seeking

ways to mitigate the effects of, these so-called combustion instabilities. While significant progress
has been made, the continued manifestation of these generally unwanted pressure oscillations in all
types of combustors, from afterburners and ramjets to gas turbines suggests that much work remains.

VORTEX SHEDDING:
Vortex shedding is an oscillating flow that takes place when a fluid such as air or water
flows past a cylindrical body at certain velocities, depending on the size and shape of the body. In
this flow, vortices are created at the back of the body and detach periodically from either side of the
body. See Von Krmn Vortex Street. The fluid flow past the object creates alternating low-pressure
vortices on the downstream side of the object. The object will tend to move toward the low-pressure
zone. Vortex shedding behind a circular cylinder is shown in the following figure.

Figure.2 Krmn vortex street

Vortex shedding as a source of oscillatory behavior of solid propellant rocket motors has
been studied for the past 25 years. The first evidence of vortex driven oscillations was encountered
in motors with complex grain geometry, used in the upper stages of ballistic missiles. If the heat
release during the combustion process fluctuates, it could couple or lock-on with other fluctuations,
thereby initiating a feedback cycle. This could have an adverse effect on the operation of an SRM,
because the chamber pressure is dependent on the combustion process, and this in turn, is related to
the thrust output.
Hence, any oscillatory combustion to begin with, would alter the thrust level. These
oscillations are usually seen in the initial stage of combustion and as combustion proceeds, these
oscillations gradually die out. Thus the net effect would be to cause fluctuations in the heat release
and the thrust. Flandro and Jacobs [2] were the first to hypothesize acoustic mode excitation by
vortex shedding in solid rocket motors. They emphasized that the instability of the rocket motor is

linked to the hydrodynamic instability of the mean flow sheared regions. Flandro [3] utilized the
energy method to enable the extension of the linear theory to finite amplitude problems in which
nonlinear effects are likely to be dominant. He presented a detailed model of the feedback effect that
links the acoustical and vortical fields in the vicinity of the origin of the shear layer. Wu and Kung
[4] presented a numerical method to determine the conditions necessary for acoustic combustion
instability in solid rocket motors with a slot-tube grain. To determine the vortex shedding
frequencies, the flow field of the upstream cylindrical port of the SRM with slotted-tube grain was
obtained by considering grain surface regression. On the other hand, the acoustic frequencies were
calculated based on the time-varying port length and the acoustic speed in the chamber, which is a
function of specific impulse. Radavich and Selamet [5] employed computational fluid dynamics to
model the complex interaction between the flow and acoustic resonances at low Mach numbers (<
0.1) by solving the unsteady, turbulent k- compressible Navier-Stokes equations. Computations
with several different flow velocities demonstrated the ability to properly identify the onset of flowacoustic coupling.
Menon and Jou [6] investigated the interactions between low frequency pressure oscillations
and the dynamics of large vortices in an axi-symmetric ramjet combustor. Two regions of the flow
field were of particular interest. The first region was the boundary layer near the step. This is a
sensitive region into which the downstream disturbance may propagate to interact with the corner
and perturb the separating shear layer. The other was the nozzle region where flow was choked.
Kailasanath et al. [7] performed numerical simulations to isolate and study the interactions between
acoustic waves and large-scale vortex structures in an idealized, central-dump combustor.
Calculations with and without acoustic forcing were performed. In the unforced calculations the
frequency was close to the first acoustic mode. But in forced calculations the amplitudes were
increased due to acoustic coupling.

The main objective of the present work is to numerically simulate the flow instabilities in solid
rocket motors. Hot flow is considered in this investigation. The flow is assumed to be

incompressible in the numerical simulations. It must be clearly understood that the flow-acoustic
coupling which is of primary interest in the context of rocket motor instabilities cannot be simulated
entirely by incompressible flow calculations alone. Numerical calculations have been carried out to
determine the vortex shedding frequency and the effect of varying the flow rate on this frequency.
The numerical simulation is carried out using commercial code FLUENT. The obtained results are
compared with the experimental values obtained from experimental project done by Shanboughe et
al [1].

Chapeter-2

LITERATURE REVIEW
***Make name bold letter of authors
Try not to put figure in literature chapter.
Make table of content according to your chapters
S. Abdul Raheem [12] has done numerical calculations of the unsteady flow in a scale
model rocket motor chamber experimentally studied by Shanboughe et al [1]. The main objective
of this work is to find out how well (if at all) the frequencies of the oscillations can be predicted by
numerical simulations. The flow is assumed to be incompressible, and axi-symmetric. All the results
reported here are second order accurate in space and time. FFT of the pressure-time data has been
performed to extract the dominant frequencies of the oscillations. Values for the dominant
frequencies (as well as the second dominant one, in some cases) obtained from the numerical
calculations are compared with the experimental values. The agreement is found to be good.
The geometry considered in this work (Fig. 1) is the same as the one investigated
experimentally by Shanbhogue et al. This is a scale model of the actual rocket motor. The primary
objective in the experiments was to determine the frequency of the oscillations of the flow field and
the impact of geometric parameters without the complicating effects of combustion. Thus, the flow
was cold and non-reacting with air as the working fluid. The maximum velocities seen in the
experiment were of the order of about 75 m/s. This is much less than the speed of sound in air under
the prevailing ambient conditions (300 K). So, the flow is assumed to be incompressible.

Figure 1 Model geometry of SRM

The computational domain with boundary conditions is shown in Fig. 2. At the inlet, the
average velocity based on the flow rate from the experiments is prescribed. In addition, for turbulent
calculations, the inlet turbulence intensity is set to 3%. This value has been estimated based on the
relationship, for fully developed pipe flows.
To determine the sensitivity of the solution to this value, calculations were also done with this
value set to 7%. The computational domain is shown in the following figure.

Figure. 2 Computational domains with boundary conditions

Contours of vorticity magnitude for fully turbulent calculations, in Fig. 3 clearly show that the shed
vortices are not growing and advecting.

Figure. 3 Contours of vorticity magnitude for fully turbulent calculations

Figure 4 shows the region in this work, calculations where the turbulent production term is
switched off. There are no criteria by which the extent of such regions can be determined. In the
present work, this region behind the backward facing step has been chosen to be one in which the
velocities are less than 10 % of the average inlet velocity.

Figure 4 Turbulent production disabled zone

The flow is considered here is cold flow which is without the effect of working fluid but in my
project the flow is considered as hot flow. The model used in this project is the scale model
experimentally studied by Shanboughe et al. in my project I have taken a different scale model of
Shanboughe et al.
In this paper Yves Fabignon [13] gave an overview of the main results obtained on
instabilities and pressure oscillations in segmented solid rocket motors. A major part of this work
was carried out in the framework of the ASSM and POP R&T programs supported by the French
national space agency CNES during the last decade. ASSM is related to Aerodynamics of
Segmented Solid Motors and POP for Pressure Oscillations Program for the Ariane 5 solid booster
(P230). Due to the use of segmented technology for the P230 motor and the possible acoustic
oscillations inside the motor chamber, anticipated at the beginning of the programs and confirmed
later on static firing tests, the main scientific objective of the ASSM program was oriented towards
the comprehension and the modeling of the vortex shedding phenomena that are supposed to be
responsible of the pressure and thrust oscillations observed in the P230. POP program was started in
order to obtain an experimental and numerical data base using subscale tests of 1/15th of the P230.
After the description of the instabilities observed in the P230 solid rocket booster, the scientific
approach of the ASSM program is detailed insisting on the validation of numerical tools in order to
predict oscillation frequencies and amplitudes. The logic of work regarding POP program is also
presented. The main section of this paper provides an overview of different results obtained in
ASSM and POP programs to understand the mechanisms driving to the instabilities in solid rocket
chamber. The most important recent result, inside ASSM and POP programs, was the discovery of
the parietal vortex shedding and the role of aluminum combustion on instabilities. Together, these

two mechanisms seem to be an important potential source of instabilities and provide a new vision of
the P230 stability.
Sanjeev Malhotra [14] made an investigation of combustion instability in solid rocket
motors was conducted using perturbation techniques, with particular emphasis placed upon
understanding the fluid dynamics of the chamber environment. It was shown that although the
phenomena generally manifests itself as oscillations of pressure, with the frequencies measured in
tests well predicted by classical acoustic formulas, important aspects of the behavior cannot be
explained without due recognition of the two basic processes of fluid dynamicsi.e., the
compressing/expanding process and the shearing process.
Thus, a new framework for studying these instabilities that accommodated both linear and
nonlinear behavior was developed. The approach differed from previous work in its use of linear
stability Eigen functionsthat satisfy the no-slip boundary conditionas a basis for the expansion,
with adjoints used to effect a spatial averaging. Among other things, this allowed for the selfconsistent inclusion of vortical flow effects.
With respect to the linear behavior, two dominant vorticity-related pathways were shown to
exist: one because of sound creating vorticity, and the other, because of that vorticity, in turn,
creating more sound. These effects cancel however and thus to leading order no net contribution
exists. Though this finding had been reported in an earlier study, restrictive assumptions were
introduced. In contrast, we establish that the result is independent of grain geometry and holds for
any fluid motion, turbulent or otherwise
A nonlinear coupling to the flame zone owing to vorticity creation was also identified. The term was
left unevaluated however, since no satisfactory model of the flame response presently exists. To help
circumvent this difficulty, i.e., that much remains to be done on modeling nonlinear processes, the
amplitude equations were studied in a general way using perturbation techniques based on ideas of
resonance. The advantage of such an approach is that the nonlinear coefficients need not be specified
a priorionly conditions on the linear behavior of the system need to be placed. Closed form results
were derived for the limiting periodic behavior when the first mode is unstable and compared against
results from numerical integration. Striking agreement was shown.
This paper explains briefly about the pressure oscillations and instabilities of the Solid
Rocket Motor and acoustic properties of the SRM which helps to understand the concept of pressure
oscillation and instabilities which is widely used in this project.

Chapter-3
METHODOLOGY
In this project, the model of the Solid Rocket Motor is taken from the experimental model of
Shanbhogue et al [1]. The model is the scale model of the same. The model and the dimensions are
shown in the following figures and tables.
Backward facing
Step

Decoupler

Wall

D1

L1

D2

D3

L2

Ld

Figure 1 Scale model of a Solid Rocket Motor

The dimensions of the above model are shown in the following tabulation:
Table 1: Dimension for model geometry in X-Y direction
Decoupler Dimensions

L1 in mm
73

D1 in mm
61

Port Dimensions

L2 in mm
250

D2 in mm
15

Downstream part
Dimensions
Ld in mm
35

D3 in mm
31

In this project, the scale model provided above is designed in GAMBIT and the meshing is done and
the pressure instabilities are calculated and numerically studied using the software called FLUENT.
The objective of this project is to investigate the frequencies of the oscillations in combustion
chamber of solid rocket motor. The Numerical simulation will be carried out in fluent and reported
results will be compared with experimental model of Shanbhogue et al [1].

The computational domain is drawn roughly and the boundary conditions are assigned for the scale
model.
Wall

Velocity inlet

Axis

Outflow

Figure 2 Computational domains with boundary conditions

BOUNDARY CONDITIONS:
Wall
Inlet
Outlet
Internal side

No slip
Velocity
Outflow
Symmetry

The model designed in the gambit is shown in the following figure:

Fig. 3 Model designed in Gambit

********Make it in future sentence

Give figure number like figure..not like fig, remove bold ..

Chapter-4
FUTURE ENHANCEMENT AND CONCLUSION
The main objective of the present work is to numerically simulate the flow instabilities in solid
rocket motors. Hot flow is considered in this investigation. The flow is assumed to be
incompressible in the numerical simulations. It must be clearly understood that the flow-acoustic
coupling which is of primary interest in the context of rocket motor instabilities cannot be simulated
entirely by incompressible flow calculations alone. Numerical calculations have been carried out to
determine the vortex shedding frequency and the effect of varying the flow rate on this frequency.
The numerical simulation is carried out using commercial code FLUENT. The obtained results are
compared with the experimental values obtained from experimental project done by Shanboughe et
al [1].

REFERENCES
1. S. J. Shanbhogue, R. I. Sujith and S. R. Chakravarthy, Aero acoustics of rocket motors with
FINOCYL grain, AIAA Paper2003-4632, 39th AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion
Conference and Exhibit, 2003.
2. G. A. Flandro and H.R. Jacobs, Vortex-Generated Sound in Cavities, AIAA Paper 731014, 1973.
3. G. A. Flandro, Vortex Driving Mechanism in Oscillatory Rocket Flows, Journal of
Propulsion and Power, Vol. 2, No. 3, 1986, pp. 196 206.
4. W. J. Wu and L. C. Kung, Determination of Triggering Condition of Vortex-Driven
Acoustic Combustion Instability in Rocket Motors, Journal of Propulsion and Power, Vol.
16, No. 6, 2000, pp. 1022-1029.
5. P. M. Radavich and A. Selamet, A computational approach for flow-acoustic coupling in
closed side branches, Journal of Acoustical Society of America, Vol. 109, No. 4, 2001, pp.
1343-1353.
6. S. Menon, Numerical Simulations of Oscillatory Cold Flows in an Axi-symmetric Ramjet
Combustor, Journal of Propulsion and Power, Vol. 6, No. 5, 1990, pp 525-534.
7. K. Kailasanath, J.H. Gardner, J.P. Boris, and E.S.Oran, Numerical Simulations of AcousticVortex Interactions in a Central-Dump Ramjet Combustor, Journal of Propulsion and
Power, Vol. 3, No. 6, 1987, pp. 525-533.
8. Boys, S.F. and Schofield, A. (1943) Investigations of Secondary Peaks, Propulsion
Development Establishment, Report 1943/5, Abesporth, England, UK.
9. Grad, H. (1949) Resonance Burning in Rocket Motors, Communications on Pure and
Applied Mathematics, Vol. 2, pp. 79-102.
10. Swanson, C.D. (1951) Resonance Burning in Rocket Grains, U.S. Naval Ordinance Test
Station, NOTS TM 439.

11. Smith, R.P. and Sprenger, D.F. (1953) Combustion Instability in Solid Propellant Rockets,
Proceedings of the Fourth Symposium (International) on Combustion, Williams and Wilkins,
Baltimore MD, p. 893.
12. S. Abdul Raheem Awad, NUMERICAL SIMULATIONS OF UNSTEADY FLOWS IN
SOLID ROCKET MOTORS, AIAA 2004-2878.
13. Yves Fabignon, Instabilities and pressure oscillations in solid rocket motors, Aerospace
Science and Technology 7 (2003) 191200
14. Sanjeev Malhotra, On Combustion Instability in Solid Rocket Motors, California Institute
of Technology Pasadena, California 2004.