Introduction

THERMAL-FLUID SCIENCES AND ROCKET PROPULSION

Instructor

Luca dAgostino:
Office: (former) Dip. Ing. Aerospaziale, Via G. Caruso, 56126 Pisa, tel. 050 2217211
Lab.: SITAEL S.p.A., 5 Via A. Gherardesca, 56121, Ospedaletto (PI), tel. 050 967211
Home: Viale Giovanni Pisano 34, 56123 Pisa tel. 050 554388

Lecture Notes, Homeworks and their Solutions

Available online from the web site: elearn.ing.unipi.it/

Student Reception

Flexible:
possibly after classes
otherwise by appointment, usually in the mornings at DIA

Exams

Oral examinations:
online reservation through the web site: https://esami.unipi.it/
sessions: as from the academic calendar
dates: as jointly agreed starting from the beginning of the session, usually on Mondays

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Introduction
ROCKET PROPULSION
A Multidisciplinary Field

A Course of Oppurtunities

Approach

Analysis:

for detailed understanding of different aspects and their interactions

Synthesis:

for relative assessment and integration of all aspects

There is nothing more practical than a good theory (James C. Maxwell)

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Introduction
APPROACHES TO PROFESSION
Specialization or/and Eclepticism

Aeronatical industry manpower in Southern California in 1936-43:

1936: about 35,000
(thirtyfive thousand)
1943: over 1,300,000 (one million three hundred throusand)

P-51 development at North American Aviation (NAA), Downey, Los Angeles, CA, USA
04/1940: British Air Commission (BAC) asks NAA to build Curtiss P-40s under licence
NAA answers they could quickly build a better plane (90 knots faster, 50% longer range)
BAC orders 320 planes on condition that first prototype be flown within 120 days

E. Schmued and R. Rice design from scratch and fly the 1st P-51 prototype in 117 days
Were they Specialists and Ecleptics?

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Curtiss P-40

Fighter

NAA P-51

563 km/h

Speed

703 km/h

2,253 km

Range

3,347 km

9,450 m

Tangency

12,770 m

5,170 kg

TO weight

5,262 kg

1,377 CV

Power

1,612 CV

Introduction

APPROACHES TO EDUCATION
Specialization or Eclepticism?
Exhaustive education (Gentile, 1924):
no longer feasible today

Superficial education:

specialistic
depth

not enough of everything

Specialistic education:
emphasizes details and techniques
limited professional cross-section
rapid obsolescence
discourages flexibility and broad-mindedness

ecleptic
superficial
engineering

Ecleptic education:
emphasizes fundamentals and multi-disciplinary approaches
wider professional cross-section
long-term orientation capability
encourages flexibility and broad-mindedness

Intuition is perspiration:
insight is obtained through experience

Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes (O. Wilde)

Luca dAgostino, 2015/16.

continuously
expanding

disciplines

Introduction
EDUCATIONAL OBJECTIVE
Problem Solving

Solving problems is the fundamental objective of engineering, however:

real-life problems are often complex, with insufficient, excessive or fuzzy information

Steps for successful solutions:

identification of objectives and available resources:
performance, cost, delivery time, people, time, money, experience, state-of-the-art
physical understanding:
conceptual paradigms + experience intuition
discrimination of essential/irrelevant information:
order-of-magnitude of involved phenomena (by simplified analyses)
introduction of acceptable simplifications
derivation of the solution:
theoretical (reduced order models), empirical (experiment), numerical (simulation)
critical assessment of the solution:
validation, confidence, accuracy, limitations, applicability

Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted
Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler (Albert Einstein)

To err is human; to make real mess, you need a computer (Unknown, yet wise)

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Introduction
STUDY TIPS
Teaching and Learning

Teaching objectives:
promoting independent interpretation of information, not providing pre-cooked solutions

Learning objectives:
acquiring the capability of elaborating information to generate solutions of new problems
a personal experience (nobody can learn in your place)
corollary: homeworks are far more effective than in-class excercises

The power of instruction is seldom of much efficacy, except in those happy dispositions
where it is almost superfluous (Gibbon)

Education is the kindling of a flame, not the filling of a vessel (Socrates)

Self-education is, I firmly believe, the only kind of education there is (Isaac Asimov)

Studying Theory v/s Homework Making

Application is the ultimate test of engineering disciplines

Time-sharing:
studying theory:
homework making:

just enough to understand and apply, not to memorize

until feeling confident with the theory and its application

I listen and forget. I see and remember. I make and understand. (ancient Chinese proverb)

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Introduction
MATERIAL, GRADING & TIME SHARING
Course Types

Guess which type are my courses?

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Introduction
A COURSE OF OPPORTUNITIES
Teachers and Students

My take home final exam of Advanced Mathematics for Engineering (March 18, 1982):

I teach for the students really interested in learning. Those students dont cheat,
(Jim Knowles, 1988, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA)

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Introduction
ON YOUR WORK
Build Your Self-Confidence and Motivate Yourself

Ability will never catch up with the demand for it (Malcolm Forbes)
Rem tene, verba sequentur (Cato the Elder)
Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new (Albert Einstein)

In the long run fortune leans on the side of those who most deserve it (H. K. von Moltke)

Direct Your Efforts

Successful people (...) go looking for the conditions they desire and, if they do not find
them, create them (George Bernard Shaw)
Reality must take precedence over public relations, for nature cannot be fooled (Richard
Feynman)
If everything seems under control, you're just not going fast enough (Mario Andretti)
Reasonable people adapt themselves to the world. (...) Therefore all progress depends on
unreasonable people (George Bernard Shaw)

Working with Other People

Speak softly and carry a big stick (Theodore Roosevelt)

It is always silly to give advise, but to give good advise is fatal (Oscar Wilde)
The measure of a man is how he treats someone who can do him no good (S. Johnson)

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Introduction
USEFUL BACKGROUND MATERIAL
Fundamentals of:

Thermal-Fluid Sciences:
applied thermodynamics, heat transfer (conduction, convection, radiation)
fluid mechanics, aerodynamics, gas dynamics

Physics and Mechanics:

mechanics, acoustics, thermodynamics, electromagnetism, optics
analytical mechanics (kinematics, statics, dynamics)
structure mechanics and dynamics

Applied Mathematics:
calculus, series, ODEs, PDEs, geometry, vector and tensor analysis
complex calculus, ODEs, special functions, EVPs and BVPs
numerical analysis, multiple nonlinear equations, integration, ODEs, PDEs
computer programming, BASIC, FORTRAN, C, MathLab, MathCad, etc.

Manufacturing Technologies

Aircraft Propulsion:
cycles, engines, turbomachines, operation parameters, requirements, applications

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Introduction
REFERENCE TEXTS
Rocket Propulsion

Hill P., Peterson C., 1992, Mechanics and Thermodynamics of Propulsion, Addison
Wesley Publ. Co., 2nd edition (excellent introductory text, even balance of fundamentals and
technology).

Sutton G. P., 1992 , Rocket Propulsion Elements, John Wiley & Sons (elementary, more
specialized, more details, more dispersive).

Oates G. C., 1988, Aerothermodynamics of Gas Turbine and Rocket Propulsion, AIAA
Education Series (less complete, more monographic, lots of nice excercises).

Humble R.W., Henry G.N. and Larson W.J., 1995, Space Propulsion Analysis and Design,
McGraw Hill College Custom Series (good elementary text, less fundamentals, more
specialized, more emphasis on design trends and trade-offs, several case-studies).

Huzel D. K. and Huang D. H., 1992, Modern Engineering for Design of Liquid-Propellant
Rocket Engines, AIAA (elementary text focused on technology aspects, lots of design
details and empirical information).

Jensen G. E. & Netzer T. W., editors, 1996, Tactical Missile Propulsion, AIAA, Progress
in Aeronautics and Astronautics, Vol. 170 (advanced text on rocket missile propulsion).

Isakowitz S.J., 1995, International Reference Guide to Space Launch Systems, AIAA.

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Introduction
REFERENCE TEXTS
Rocket Propulsion (continued)

Simmons, F.S., 2000, Rocket Exhaust Plume Phenomenology, AIAA.

Yang V., Habiballah M., Hulka J. and Popp M., editors, 2004, Liquid Rocket Thrust
Chambers: Aspects of Modeling, Analysis and Design, AIAA, Vol. 200.

De Luca L., Price E.W and Summerfield M. editors, 1992, Nonsteady Burning and
Combustion Stability of Solid Propellants, AIAA, Progress in Aeronautics and
Astronautics, Vol. 143.

Yang V. Brill T.B., Wu-Zhen Ren editors, 2000, Solid Propellant Chemistry, Combustion
and Motor Interior Ballistics, AIAA, Progress in Aeronautics and Astronautics, Vol. 185.

Chiaverini M. J. and Kuo K. editors, 2007, Fundamentals of Hybrid Rocket Combustion

and Propulsion, AIAA, Progress in Aeronautics and Astronautics, Vol. 218.

Kuo K. K. and Summerfield M., editors, 1984, Fundamentals of Solid-Propellant

Combustion, AIAA, Vol. 90 (advanced monographic text on solid propellant rocket
combustion).

Yang V. & Anderson W., editors, 1995, Liquid Rocket Engine Combustion Instability,
AIAA, Vol. 169.

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Introduction
REFERENCE TEXTS
Airbreathing Propulsion

Hill P., Peterson C., 1992, Mechanics and Thermodynamics of Propulsion, Addison
Wesley Publ. Co., 2nd edition (excellent introductory text, even balance of fundamentals and
technology).

Kerrebrock, 1992, Aircraft Engines and Gas Turbines, Cambridge University Press, 2nd
edition (fundamentals of gas turbine engines and hypersonic air breathing engines, focuses
on general concepts and ideas, not details; great for thinking).

Oates G.C., 1984, Aerothermodynamics of Aircraft Engine Components, AIAA Education

Series (monographic on gas turbine engines, lots of nice excercises).

Oates G.C., 1989, Aircraft Propulsion Systems Technology and Design, AIAA Education
Series (monographic on gas turbine engine/inlet/airframe system performance, integration
and technology, lots of nice excercises).

Murthy S.N.B. and Murray E.T., ed., 1996, Developments in High-Speed Propulsion
Systems, Progress in Astronautics and Aeronautics, Vol. 165, AIAA.

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Introduction
REFERENCE TEXTS
Fluid Mechanics

Currie I. G., 1993, Fundamental Mechanics of Fluids, McGraw-Hill, excellent

introductory book on laminar fluid dynamics.

Saberski R.H., Acosta A.J., Hauptmann E.G., 1989, Fluid Flow, Macmillan Publishing
Co., excellent first course in fluid mechanics, good introduction to turbomachinery flow.

White F.E., 1974, Viscous Fluid Flow, McGraw Hill, excellent book on viscous fluid
dynamics, very pleasant to read.

Anderson J. D. Jr., 1991, Fundamentals of Aerodynamics, McGraw-Hill, introductory text

on aerodynamics, very pleasant to read.

Anderson J. D. Jr., 1990, Modern Compressible Flow with Historical Perspective,

McGraw-Hill, introductory text on compressible flows, very pleasant to read.

Sherman F.S., 1990, Viscous Flow, McGraw-Hill, excellent book on viscous fluid
dynamics, advanced treatment, not very easy.

Betchov R.& Criminale W.O. Jr., 1967, Stability of Parallel Flows, Academic Press,
introductory text on fluid dynamic stability.

Drazin P.G. & Reid W.H., 1981, Hydrodynamic Stability, Cambridge University Press,
more advanced text on fluid dynamic stability.

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Introduction
REFERENCE TEXTS
Thermodynamics and Heat Transfer

Eastop & McConkey, 1993, Applied Thermodynamics, Longman Scientific &Technical,

5th Edition, good book for fundamentals of thermal and heat sciences.

Eckert & Drake, 1972, Analysis of Heat and Mass Transfer, MacGraw Hill Inc., excellent
book on heat transfer, not too up to date, slightly unusual notations.

Callen H.B., 1985, Thermodynamics and an Introduction to Thermostatitstics, John Wiley

& Sons, advanced text on axiomatic classical thermodynamics and statistical mechanics,
very elightening.

Aerothermodynamics and Plasmas

Anderson J. D. Jr., 1989, Hypersonic and High Temperature Gas Dynamics, MacGraw
Hill, introductory text on aerothermodynamics, very pleasant to read.

Vincenti W.G. & Kruger C.H., 1986, Physical Gas Dynamics, Krieger Publ. Co., Malabar,
FL, USA.

Mitchner M. & Kruger C.H., 1973, Partially Ionized Gases, John Wiley & Sons Inc.

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Introduction
REFERENCE TEXTS
Acoustics

Morse P.M. & Ingard K.U., 1968, Theoretical Acoustics, Princeton Univ. Press,
Princeton, NJ, USA; classical reference in acoustics, quite good, extensive and plainly
explained.

Combustion

Kuo K. K., 1986, Principles of Combustion, John Wiley & Sons Inc., fundamental text on
combustion, rather complete, a bit dispersive.

Turns, S.R., 1996, An Introduction to Combustion, McGraw Hill, good and readable but
more elementary book.

Oran E. S. and Boris J. P., editors, 1991, Numerical Approaches to Combustion Modeling,
AIAA, Vol. 135 (advanced monographic text on combustion modeling).

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Introduction
REFERENCE TEXTS
Turbomachinery

Brennen C. E., 1995, Hydrodynamics of Pumps, Concepts ETI, Inc., P.O. Box 643,
Norwich, Vt, USA 05055, excellent book on research aspects of turbopumps.

Aungier, R. H., 2000, Centrifugal Compressors, ASME Press, New York, NY, USA.

Lakshminarayana B., 1996, Fluid Dynamics and Heat Transfer of Turbomachines, John
Wiley & Sons Inc., excellent advanced book on turbomachines.

Two-Phase Flows

Brennen C. E., 1995, Cavitation and Bubble Dynamics, Oxford University Press, excellent
book on research aspects of bubbly cavitating flows.

Wallis G.B., 1969, One-Dimensional Two-Phase Flow, MacGraw Hill, standard refeence
for two-phase flows.

Carey, van P., 1992, Liquid-Vapor Phase-Change Phenomena, Taylor and Francis.

Rotordynamics

Ehrich F.F., 1999, Handbook of Rotordynamics, Krieger Publ. Co., Malabar, FL, USA.

Childs, D., 1993, Turbomachinery Rotordynamics, John Wiley & Sons Inc.

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Introduction
REFERENCE TEXTS
Background Material on Calculus and Analysis

Apostol, 1967, Calculus, Blaisdell.

Courant and John, 1965, Introduction to Calculus and Analysis, Interscience.

Knopp, 1956, Infinite Sequences and Series, Dover.

Introductory Treatises on Complex Variables

Churchill, Brown & Verhey, 1974, Complex Variables and Applications, McGraw Hill.

Dettman, 1965, Applied Complex Variables, Macmillan.

Levinson and Redheffer, 1970, Complex Variables, Holden-Day.

Advanced Treatises on Complex Variables

Ahlfors, 1966, Complex Analysis, McGraw Hill.

Caratheordory, 1954, Theory of Functions of a Complex Variable, Chelsea.

Copson, 1957, Theory of Functions of a Complex Variable, Oxford.

Markushevich, 1965, 1967, Theory of Functions of a Complex Variable, Prentice-Hall.

Titchmarsh, 1939, Theory of Functions, Oxford.

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Introduction
REFERENCE TEXTS
Applied Mathematics

Courant R. and Hilbert D., 1953, Methods of Mathematical Physics, Interscience

Publishers, Vol. I and II, classical and excellent text of advanced mathematics.

Hildebrand F.B., 1976, Advanced Calculus for Applications, Prentice-Hall Inc., classical
and excellent text on real ODEs, Laplace transforms, numerical methods, special functions,
BVPs, vector analysis, PDEs, and complex analysis.

Numerical Methods

Press W., Teulkowsky S., Vetterling W. & Flannery B., 1992, Numerical Recipes in
FORTRAN, 2nd Ed., Cambridge University Press; simply excellent book, very intuitive.

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Introduction
DOCUMENTING YOUR WORK
Tips for Effective Documentation

Illustrate the relevance of the activity and identify its motivations and engineering impacts

Present the state-of-the-art and acknowledge previous work to clarify your starting point

Define the objectives (in the light, of course, of what has actually been achieved)

Illustrate the logical and operational path used to move rationally and orderly from the stateof-the-art to the objectives, clearly identifying your original contributions

Illustrate the results discussing their possible limitations

Present the conclusions, i.e. the novel aspects (either positive or negative) learned from the
activity (not a summary)

Briefly discuss possible future developments of the activity

Common Errors

Lack of synthesis, logical consistency and style, syntax and/or orthographic errors.

Figures without the indication of the measurement units on the axes and/or with unreadable
legends and/or with curves and diagrams with little distinguishable colors.

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Introduction
PRESENTING YOUR WORK
Tips for Effective Presentations

Presentations should be taylored to the competence of the audience

Start by qualitatively explaining the problem at the appropriate level of complexity

Limit excessive details that might confuse the listener (classical error in trying to promote
ones hard work)

Be prepared upon request to illustrate future developments of the activity

Plan for one minute per slide

Use lists of synthetic key points (just nouns and adjectives) and lot of figures

Do not use long sentences (the audience cannot read them and listen to you at the same time)

Each slide should be readable and understandable in just a few seconds

Never read the contents of the slide

Avoid excessive use of animations/overlaps (they do not show properly in paper copies)

Expand key points verbally, hopefully confirming the audiences preliminary understanding

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