Date of Award
2015
Document Type
Thesis
Degree Name
Master of Science (MS)
Department
Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering
Committee Chair
Robert A. Frederick, Jr.
Committee Member
David M. Lineberry
Committee Member
George J. Nelson
Subject(s)
Solid propellants--Combustion, Solid propellant rockets, X-rays--Industrial applications
Abstract
The burning rate of solid propellants can be difficult to measure for unusual burning surface geometries, but X-ray imaging can be used to measure burning rate. The objectives of this work were to measure the baseline burning rate of an electrically-controlled solid propellant (ESP) formulation with real-time X-ray radiography and to determine the uncertainty of the measurements. Two edge detection algorithms were written to track the burning surface in X-ray videos. The edge detection algorithms were informed by intensity profiles of simulated 2-D X-ray images. With a 95% confidence level, the burning rates measured by the Projected-Slope Intersection algorithm in the two combustion experiments conducted were 0.0839 in/s ±2.86% at an average pressure of 407 psi ±3.6% and 0.0882 in/s ±3.04% at 410 psi ±3.9%. The uncertainty percentages were based on the statistics of a Monte Carlo analysis on burning rate.
Recommended Citation
Denny, Matthew D., "Measurement of solid rocket propellant burning rate using x-ray imaging" (2015). Theses. 145.
https://louis.uah.edu/uah-theses/145