Aerospace Science and Technology 45 (2015) 1016

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Aerospace Science and Technology

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A numerical investigation of oxidizer mixed hybrid rocket motors

Palani Kumar Chidambaram ,1 , Amit Kumar 2
Department of Aerospace Engineering, National Center for Combustion Research and Development, IIT Madras, Chennai, 600036, India

a r t i c l e i n f o a b s t r a c t

Article history: In this work, the effect of solid oxidizer (AP) mixed fuel grain (HTPB) on regression rate and performance
Received 13 October 2014 in GOX hybrid rocket motors is numerically studied. Here the pyrolysis products of AP and the fuel forms
Received in revised form 3 April 2015 a premixed ame very close to the grain surface in addition to the fueloxygen diffusion ame located
Accepted 10 April 2015
further away from the grain surface. The presence of premixed ame increases heat feedback to the
Available online 16 April 2015
grain and consequently increases the local regression rate throughout the grain length. This is contrary
to the locally limited inuence observed while using other regression rate enhancement techniques like
swirling oxidizer, or transverse diaphragms/protrusions. Scaling of motors with AP mixed grain of a given
composition follows that of a pure fuel grain where the grain geometry and the inlet oxidizer mass ux
need to be maintained.
2015 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.

1. Introduction
Hybrid rocket motors are a combination of solid and liquid
rocket motors. A hybrid rocket has fuel and oxidizer in different
phases (generally solid fuel and either liquid or gaseous oxidizer).
Hybrid rocket motors offer a promise of being reliable, extremely
safe and cheap launch vehicles. However, the commercial viabil-
ity of the hybrid rockets is marred by certain disadvantages, of
which the most important ones are the low regression rate and
low combustion eciency. Regression rate is a measure of solid
fuel consumption in a hybrid motor and is expressed in terms of
fuel thickness consumed per unit time. In a hybrid rocket combus-
tion chamber, gaseous oxidizer and vaporized fuel mix and form
a diffusion ame front. A portion of heat from this ame front is
used for further pyrolysis of the fuel and for sustaining the com-
bustion. Thus, a successful regression rate enhancement technique
must employ a way to increase the heat feedback from the diffu-
sion ame to the fuel surface.
Typical regression rate enhancement techniques involve heat
transfer improvement at the fuel surface by means of perturbed
ow [13], improved injector design [47] or energetic additives
to the solid fuel [811]. Disturbances in the ow eld are typi-
cally caused by obstructions like diaphragms that form recircula-
tion zones downstream of them. These recirculation zones bring
hot products from the combustion zone closer to the fuel surface
* Corresponding author.
E-mail address: guru.palani@gmail.com (P.K. Chidambaram).
1
Ph.D. Research Scholar.
2
Professor.
and improve the heat transferred to the fuel. Improved injector de-
signs enable enhanced radial transport in the combustion chamber
that improves the heat feedback to the fuel surface. The energetic
additives to the solid fuel can be either metallic [10] or non-
metallic [9,11]. Metallic additives enhance the heat transfer to the
fuel grain surface by means of enhanced radiation. Non-metallic
additives are typically solid oxidizers that enhance heat transfer to
the solid grain surface by means of additional energy release by
reacting with the fuel vapor close to the grain surface. The addi-
tives are added and mixed thoroughly with the solid grain during
casting of the grain. The quantity of solid oxidizer used is usu-
ally very low up, at most, 30%. It was experimentally observed [9]
that hybrid rockets with 30% AP mixed HTPB grains sustained the
startstop capability up to an operating pressure of 43 bar.
In the present work, a systematic numerical study is attempted
to assess the effect of AP content in the solid HTPB grain (ex-
pressed in percentage) on the regression rate and performance of
hybrid rockets of various grain sizes.
2. Numerical model
The numerical model in the present study is explained in detail
in [3]. Hence the model is only briey discussed here. The typ-
ical computation domain used in the present work is presented
in Fig. 1. The different boundaries of the computation domain are
marked and the types of boundary conditions used in these bound-
aries are provided in curved braces. Magnied view of mesh in
three separate regions marked by dashed boxes is shown in Fig. 1
(lower).
The transport processes occurring in a hybrid rocket combus-
tion chamber can be described adequately by the basic ow equa-

http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.ast.2015.04.005
1270-9638/ 2015 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.
 P.K. Chidambaram, A. Kumar / Aerospace Science and Technology 45 (2015) 1016 11

Nomenclature

As, A g Arrhenius pre-exponential factor for solid fuel pyroly- m Mass ow rate (kg s1 )
sis, gas phase reactions n Order of the gas phase reactions
C Characteristic velocity (m s1 ) r Cylindrical coordinate in radial direction
D Grain port diameter (mm)
rb Local regression rate (mm s1 )
Dj Diffusivity of species j (m2 s1 )
v Gas velocity in a given cell
E as , E g Arrhenius activation energy for solid fuel pyrolysis, gas
phase reactions Yi Mass fraction of species i
G OX Local mass ux, inlet oxidizer mass ux (kg m2 s1 ) Thermal diffusivity of solid fuel (m2 s1 )
L Grain port length (mm) , s Density of gas, solid (kg m3 )

R2: Conversion of AP pyrolysis products into AP decomposition

products

2(NH3 + HClO4 ) 3H2 O + 2.5O2 + 2HCl + 1N2

A g = 8.55 105 ; E g = 27.5 kJ/mol; n = 2 [13]
R3: Reaction between butadiene and AP pyrolysis products

C4 H6 + 4.4(NH3 + HClO4 )
1.4CO + 2.6CO2 + 0.7Cl + 3.7HCl + 0.65H2 + 8.9H2 O
+ 2.2N2 + 0.8OH + 0.65O2
A g = 4 109 ; E g = 120 kJ/mol; n = 1 [13]
R4: Reaction between butadiene and AP decomposition prod-
ucts

Fig. 1. Computation domain with boundary types specied (upper gure) and typi- C4 H6 + 4.4(1.5H2 O + 1.25O2 + HCl + 0.5N2 )
cal mesh shown in the selected regions of the domain (lower gure).
1.4CO + 2.6CO2 + 0.7Cl + 3.7HCl + 0.65H2 + 8.9H2 O
tions of continuity, momentum and energy along with the equa- + 2.2N2 + 0.8OH + 0.65O2
tions modeling turbulence and transport equations for species. The
A g = 5 105 ; E g = 60 kJ/mol; n = 1.6 [13]
combustion chamber in a single port hybrid rocket motor is as-
sumed to be axially symmetric. The governing equations consid- The composition of products for the reactions is obtained us-
ered are expressed in 2D axi-symmetric coordinates [3]. ing the chemical equilibrium code NASA SP273 [12]. The product
species considered here constitute more than 95% of all the pre-
2.1. Chemical kinetics dicted species. Note that this modied model is a 14 species sys-
tem as compared to the 4 species system of the original global
gas-phase chemistry model used in [3]. Thus, an additional 10
Combustion model with detailed chemistry is desired for accu-
transport equations are solved in the simulations carried out with
rate predictions. However, proper reaction mechanism and related
this modied model.
kinetics are not readily available in the literature. Nevertheless,
The pyrolysis of the solid fuel (HTPB grain) was modeled by
thermodynamic effect of multi species can be readily incorpo-
zeroth order Arrhenius equation following [14]. The mass of fuel
rated [12]. For simulations involving AP mixed solid grains, the
released by pyrolysis is given by
single step gas phase chemistry used in [3] is insucient. Rama-
( REuasT s )
krishna et al. [13] carried out a numerical study in composite AP = s rb = A s e
m (1)
based sandwich propellant. Their model consists of ve step re-
action kinetics of which two reactions approximate solid pyrolysis 2.2. Boundary conditions
(one each for AP and HTPB) and three reactions approximate gas
phase chemical reactions. The pyrolysis of AP is incorporated in As mentioned before, the various boundary types are shown in
the existing boundary condition (which already incorporates pyrol- Fig. 1. These include mass ow boundary for oxidizer at the head
ysis of HTPB). The three gas phase reactions between fuel vapors end of the grain port, supersonic exit at the nozzle exit and axi-
and products of AP pyrolysis and AP decomposition are added symmetric boundary at the axis. The boundary condition at the
to the existing single step gas phase chemistry model (reaction fuel surface (or fuelgas interface) was enforced by applying local
between butadiene and gaseous oxygen). Thus, the modied gas mass (total and components) and energy balance [3]. The equa-
phase chemistry model used in the present numerical study has tions of mass and energy balance at the interface are
four steps as given below.    
T T
R1: Oxidation of butadiene eff s s rb h s ( vh) g
r g r s
C4 H6 + 5.5O2 2.6CO + 1.4CO2 + 0.47H + 0.41H2 + 1.85H2 O 
N  
Y j
+ D j hj = 0 (2)
+ 0.6O + 1.01OH + 1.06O2 r
1
A g = 8.8 1011 ; E g = 126.37 kJ/mol; n = 2 [14] = s rb = v
m (3)
12 P.K. Chidambaram, A. Kumar / Aerospace Science and Technology 45 (2015) 1016
Table 1
A comparison of chamber pressure, regression rate and enhancement in regression rate between the experiment values reported and the predictions with the present
numerical model.
Experiments
P C , bar rb , mm/s Enhancement in rb , %
HTPB T2 29.97 0.66
AP30 T2 43.76 1.23 86.87
HTPB T3 10.94 1.08
AP30 T3 12.18 1.51 40.24
The temperature prole inside the solid fuel is solved by as-
suming a 1D analytical prole for temperature given by,
rb r
T (r ) = ( T s T )e ( ) + T
The governing equations and the models discussed in the
above section for the solid phase and the gas phase along with
the boundary conditions are solved numerically using a pressure
based, double precision, unsteady solver, ANSYS Fluent. Unsteady
solver is used to capture any time dependent features in the ow.
Second order discretization schemes were used for spatial and
temporal discretization as they were found to be more accurate
than rst order schemes and nearly as accurate as third order
schemes [3]. The discretized governing equations are solved iter-
atively until convergence is attained.
This numerical model is extensively validated [3,7] for HTPB
GOX system using a single step global chemistry for non-swirling
and swirling ow in the combustion chamber with experimental
and numerical results from literature. The ability of the numerical
model with this modied gas phase chemistry to predict regres-
sion rate enhancement of hybrid rocket motors with AP mixed fuel
grain is demonstrated in Table 1. This is explained in detail in Ap-
pendix A.
3. Results and discussion
Simulations were rst carried out for laboratory scale motors
to understand the effect of AP in the solid grain on regression rate
and performance of the hybrid rocket motor. A parametric study
was then carried out to explore the effect of scaling of grain at
selected composition.
3.1. A representative case of motor with AP mixed fuel grain
A representative case of a laboratory scale hybrid rocket mo-
tor (grain port diameter 30 mm and grain length 450 mm) with
grain composition of 30% AP and 70% HTPB is considered for un-
derstanding the mechanism by which AP in the grain inuences
regression rate and motor performance. For comparison, an identi-
cal rocket motor with pure HTPB is also simulated. The G OX at the
inlet is 132 kg/(m2 s) at 300 K.
Fig. 2 presents the convective heat ux (qconvection ) which is the
prime source of heat feed back to the fuel surface and the local
regression rate (rb ) along the length of a grain with 30% AP (solid
lines) and a pure HTPB grain (dashed lines). The AP mixed grain
has higher convective heat ux and thus a higher regression rate
compared to the grain without AP. This is due to the additional re-
actions involving the pyrolysis and the decomposition products of
AP that are released from the grain surface along with fuel vapor.
Fig. 3(A) and Fig. 3(B) show the radial variation of reaction rate and
heat released due to the various reactions respectively. The gures
are plotted for an axial location, X = 75 mm. In the gures, the Y
axis shows the distance from the fuel surface in logarithmic scale.
Here, the grain surface is at Y = 0 mm and the axis of the port is
at Y = 15 mm.
Present numerical work
P C , bar rb , mm/s Enhancement in rb , %
29.17 0.53
40.92 0.93 75.54
10.97 1.35
13.71 1.94 43.22
(4)
Fig. 2. A comparison of convective heat ux at the fuel surface and regression rate
along the axial length for a pure HTPB grain and a grain with 30% AP.
One can note that there are two distinct zones of reactions
where heat is released. The reaction zone closer to the grain sur-
face (Y < 0.1 mm) is due to premixed vapors of fuel and AP. This
zone is called premixed ame region. The reaction zone farther
from this premixed ame region (here at a distance of 2 mm from
the grain surface) is the diffusion ame region where fuel vapor
reacts with inlet gaseous oxygen. One may also note that the pre-
mixed reactions between fuel and pyrolysis products of AP (R3) is
the major component of heat release closer to grain surface (see
Fig. 3(B)). This additional heat released closer to the grain surface
enhances the net convective heat ux to the grain surface and thus
the regression rate throughout the grain length (see Fig. 2).
3.2. Effect of AP content in the solid grain
In a hybrid rocket motor the overall O/F ratio varies with L/D
ratio. For an optimal motor the overall O/F ratio is near stoichio-
metric [3]. At this optimal L/D ratio, C and I sp are seen to attain
a maximum [3]. Below the optimal L/D ratio, the motor operates
in the fuel lean regime and above the optimal L/D ratio the mo-
tor operates in the fuel rich regime. In the present section we look
at the effect of proportion of AP (expressed in percentage) on the
regression rate and the motor performance of hybrid rocket with
the solid grains of various L/D ratios. The AP proportion is limited
to 30% as the literature [9] suggests that at higher AP fractions the
grain loses startstop capability and begins to behave like a solid
motor.
Fig. 4 illustrates the effect of AP in the solid grain on average
regression rate and other parameters of the short laboratory scale
motor. It is noted that the regression rate increases with increase
in AP fraction in the grain. The increase in regression rate de-
creases the overall O/F ratio. Note that the overall O/F ratio here is
dened as the ratio of inlet oxidizer mass (inlet oxygen) to the to-
tal mass ow rate from the fuel surface (AP + HTPB). The stoichio-
metric O/F ratio for the grain with given AP content also decreases
 P.K. Chidambaram, A. Kumar / Aerospace Science and Technology 45 (2015) 1016
Fig. 3. (A) Reaction rate contours and (B) volumetric heat released due to the reactions, along the radius at an axial location of 75 mm from the head end of the combustion
chamber (Insets: Magnied views for individual reactions closer to the fuel surface).
Fig. 4. Effect of AP content in the solid grain on the average regression rate, overall
O/F ratio and other the characteristic velocity C .
with increase in AP proportion because a part of fuel vapor is con-
sumed in reactions with AP. C is enhanced with increase in AP in
the solid grain because the overall O/F ratio approach stoichiomet-
ric O/F ratio and the average gas temperature at the nozzle inlet is
enhanced. Increase in low molecular weight product species causes
better diffusion and thus results in increased C .
3.3. Geometric scaling of oxidizer mixed fuel grain
In a scaling study [15] performed earlier with single step global
chemistry discussed in [3], it was found that the grains of var-
ious port diameters (from 20 mm to 90 mm) exhibited similar
specic impulse performance when the grain port L/D ratio and
inlet G OX are maintained. Before examining the scaling of oxidizer
mixed fuel grain we look at the effect of fuel grain length on the
motor performance.
Simulations were carried out for grains of various lengths (from
150 mm to 750 mm in steps of 150 mm) for selected AP content
(0%, 10%, 20% and 30%). The inlet G OX was 132 kg/(m2 s). The re-
sults of these simulations are discussed next.
13
Fig. 5. Effect of AP content in the solid grain on the local regression rate prole
along the grain length for a motor with grain port diameter of 30 mm and grain
length of 750 mm.
The local regression rate along the axial length for 750 mm long
grains with various AP content (0%, 10%, 20% and 30%) is presented
in Fig. 5. Progressive addition of pyrolysis products from the grain
surface results in increasing local mass ux along the grain length.
This causes the axial increase in the local regression rate. With in-
creasing AP content in the grain, the local regression rate is higher
at corresponding locations in various grains. It was reported in
[3,7] that in the presence of a regression rate enhancement tech-
nique, the local regression rate is enhanced and the oxygen is con-
sumed in a shorter grain length (compared to when no regression
rate enhancement technique is used). Thus the local regression rate
attains a maximum at about 300 mm (L/D = 10) for a grain of port
diameter 30 mm (compared to about 450 mm, L/D = 15 in the
absence of regression rate enhancement technique) and decreases
along downstream locations. However, it is interesting to note here
that even in the presence of enhancement technique of using AP in
fuel grain, the local regression rate continues to increase through-
out the grain length for the grain of port diameter 30 mm. This
is because; even in the absence of heat feedback from diffusion
ame front (when the inlet oxygen is completely depleted), there
14 P.K. Chidambaram, A. Kumar / Aerospace Science and Technology 45 (2015) 1016
Fig. 6. Effect of grain length on (A) average regression rate, overall O/F ratio, and (B) characteristic velocity, for grains of selected AP content in solid grain.
is a heat feedback to the grain surface from the premixed ame
all along the grain surface. Thus the local regression rate continues
to increase till the end of the grain. Therefore, the enhancement in
regression rate due to the presence of AP in the grain is not local
and occurs throughout the length of the solid grain unlike those
seen due to swirl in oxidizer ow or diaphragms/protrusions. Con-
sequently, the average regression rate is enhanced for grains of all
lengths (see Fig. 6(A)). With increase in regression rate, the over-
all O/F ratio decreases with increase in grain length as seen in the
inset in Fig. 6(A).
Interestingly, C shows a different increasingdecreasing trend
with increase in grain length as shown in Fig. 6(B). C is strongly
dependent on the average gas temperature and attains maximum
at a location closer to where oxygen depletes. Interestingly even
with 30% AP in the grain, the oxygen depletion and consequently
the peak C occurs for grain L/D ratio of about 18 compared to L/D
ratio of 20 for pure HTPB grain. This is because the presence of AP
in fuel grain has two effects, rst is reduction in the amount of fuel
present in the grain and the second is increase in heat transfer to
fuel grain from the premixed ame. Both of these favor a shorter
motor L/D at which peak C is expected to occur.
Therefore, it should be noted that while it is possible to en-
hance the local and average regression rates using longer AP mixed
fuel grain, it must be done at the expense of decrease in C
which has a maximum for L/D = 18. In case further enhancement
of regression rate is required by incorporation of other regression
rate enhancement techniques, the L/D for such grain must be less
than 18.
Now coming to the scaling of AP mixed fuel grains, simulations
were carried out for grains of xed port L/D ratio and xed inlet
G OX . As C enhancement is feasible only for short grains, a repre-
sentative L/D ratio of 10 was chosen for the simulations. The inlet
G OX was 132 kg/(m2 s) supplied at 300 K. Fig. 7(A) presents the av-
erage regression rate and overall O/F ratio for grains of L/D ratio 10
and various port diameters (30 mm, 60 mm and 120 mm) and AP
content (from 0% to 30%). For a given grain, the average regression
rate decreases (in a decreasing rate) with increase in grain port di-
ameter. In a grain of large port diameter the increase in local mass
ux due to fuel addition is lower because of larger port area. Thus
the local regression rate increases at a slower rate along the grain
length in a grain with large port diameter. Correspondingly, the
overall O/F ratio increases with increase in grain port diameter. As
seen in the previous section (Section 3.2), with increase in AP con-
tent in the solid grain, the average regression rate increases and
overall O/F ratio decreases.
Fig. 7(B) presents C variation for the simulations illustrated in
Fig. 7(A). Interestingly the variation in C with increase in grain
port diameter is only marginal. As C is dependent on overall O/F
ratio, the slight variation in O/F ratio is believed to have caused a
marginal decrease in C with increasing grain port diameter. How-
ever, C increased marginally due to better mixing in larger grains.
This indicates that the scaled up motors, with the same composi-
tion of the solid grain as for the small motor, are expected to yield
similar performance when the grain geometry and inlet G OX are
maintained.
3.4. Effect of oxidizer mass ux on regression rate of mixed fuel grain
Lastly we look at the effect of G OX on regression rate which, so
far was taken to be constant at 132 kg/(m2 s) in the above simu-
lations. The dependence of average regression rate on G OX is one
of the important aspects sought after in hybrid rocket studies. In
the previous study by the authors [16] for pure HTPB grain with
port L/D of 15, the G OX exponent was found to be 0.72. Here we
ask how this exponent is affected in an AP mixed fuel grain. Fig. 8
shows the variation of average regression rate with G OX for the
same grain dimensions but with 30% AP in the grain. The G OX ex-
ponent is about 0.64, slightly lower than 0.72 for pure HTPB grain.
This G OX exponent for grains with lower AP content is expected to
lie between 0.72 and 0.64.
The slight decrease in the G OX exponent is expected because
in the presence of premixed APHTPB ame close to the surface,
the inuence of diffusion ame (O2 -HTPB) is reduced. However,
the heat transfer from the diffusion ame still dominates (thus a
hybrid motor).
4. Conclusion
In this work, performance enhancement of a hybrid rocket mo-
tor using AP impregnated grain was numerically studied for the
 P.K. Chidambaram, A. Kumar / Aerospace Science and Technology 45 (2015) 1016
Fig. 7. Effect of grain port diameter on (A) average regression rate, overall O/F ratio, and (B) characteristic velocity, and combustion eciency for grains of selected AP content
in solid grain.
Fig. 8. Effect of inlet oxidizer mass ux on the average regression rate.
rst time. A systematic study was carried out to understand the
physical processes governing regression rate and motor perfor-
mance of such grains. The AP content in the solid fuel grain, grain
length and grain port diameter were systematically varied to esti-
mate the effect on regression rate and performance of the hybrid
rocket motor. The major conclusions that may be drawn from this
study are listed below.
1) Products of AP pyrolysis and decomposition react with fuel va-
por forming a premixed ame region near the grain surface.
This increases heat feedback to the grain surface and conse-
quently enhances the regression rate.
2) The local regression rate was seen to increase throughout the
grain length. With a further increase in grain length also, the
local regression rate is expected to increase further due to
the presence of HTPBAP premixed ame close to the surface.
Therefore, enhancement in regression rate can be achieved for
15
practically any grain length. However, C enhancement is lim-
ited to grains with L/D < 18 due to oxygen depletion.
3) The average regression rate decreases with increase in grain
port diameter. However, the variation in C is marginal. This
trend is similar to the base motors (pure HTPB). Therefore,
AP impregnated grains are expected scale similar to the base
motors where geometry (L/D) and oxidizer mass ux are main-
tained.
4) The G OX exponent in the average regression rate expression
was found to be slightly lower at 0.64 for 30% AP grain com-
pared to 0.72 for pure HTPB grain.
Conict of interest statement
The authors certify that they have no aliations with or in-
volvement in any organization or entity with any nancial interest
or non-nancial interest in the subject matter or materials dis-
cussed in this manuscript.
Appendix A. Model validation
A.1. Regression rate in pure HTPB grain
The validity of the numerical model in the prediction of regres-
sion rate in a hybrid rocket motor was discussed elaborately in
[3] and [7]. Experimental predictions [17] of test numbers 8, 9, 11
and 14 and numerical predictions [18] in slab motors were used
to validate the present model. It was found [3] that the numeri-
cal model with a single step global chemistry was able to predict
the local and average regression rates for hybrid rockets with pure
HTPB grain.
A.2. Regression rate in AP mixed grain at various G OX
In the presence of solid additives, like AP, the gas phase kinetics
needs to be modied to take into account additional reactions near
the grain surface between pyrolysis and decomposition products of
AP and fuel vapor. A modied model was thus described in this
manuscript. Here we test the ability of the numerical model with
16 P.K. Chidambaram, A. Kumar / Aerospace Science and Technology 45 (2015) 1016
Fig. 9. A comparison of predicted regression rate with the experiments in a hybrid
rocket motor with 7.55% AP mixed solid grain.
the modied chemistry to predict regression rate in a hybrid rocket
motor containing HTPBAPGOX system. George and Krishnan [8]
performed experiments on HTPB grain mixed with 7.55% AP. Simu-
lations were carried out for the same grain composition and grain
geometry with the modied gas phase chemistry model. The pre-
dicted average regression rates at various inlet oxidizer mass uxes
are compared with the reported experimental measurements in
Fig. 9. It is seen that the present numerical model with modied
chemistry is able to predict the regression rate to a reasonable ex-
tent (within +20% or 10%).
A.3. Regression rate in AP mixed grain with higher AP content
As discussed before in Section 1, Frederick et al. [9] carried out
experiments at higher content of AP in the HTPB grain (up to 30%).
Four tests corresponding to two test conditions T2 and T3 with
two different grains pure HTPB grain and a solid grain with 30%
AP are chosen for the study. The test T2 was performed at low in-
let oxidizer mass ux (about 80 kg/(m2 s)) and high pressure (refer
Table 1) condition. The test T3 was performed at high inlet oxidizer
mass ux (about 300 kg/(m2 s)) and low pressure condition (refer
Table 1). Simulations were performed to predict the regression rate
with the present model in the experimental conditions reported in
their work. The experimentally measured [9] and predicted regres-
sion rate and the corresponding chamber pressure values for these
conditions are given in Table 1.
It can be noticed that there is a slight under-prediction in
regression rate at high pressure and low mass ux condition,
whereas, there is an over-prediction at low pressure and high mass
ux condition. This discrepancy arises likely due to the assump-
tions made in the modied chemistry (homogenization of solid
grain, global gas phase chemistry). However, it must be noted that
the enhancement in the regression rate over the base motor due to
presence of AP in the grain is predicted reasonably well. The focus
of the present work with oxidizer mixed fuel grain is to assess the
effect of AP on regression rate and other performance parameters
of the hybrid motor relative to a base motor. Hence, the present
numerical model with modied chemistry is taken to be sucient
for the prediction of transport process and rocket performance of
a hybrid rocket motor with oxidizer mixed solid fuel grain.
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