Stability Evaluation of One-Dimensional Flow in Solid Rocket Motors Based on Computational Fluid Dynamics

Numerical stability analysis of one-dimensional axial flow in solid rocket motors is performed based on the Euler equation coupled with an unsteady combustion equation of solid propellant. In order to check the numerical scheme, behavior of a standing wave in a closed tube is examined. A standing wave in solid rocket motor decays or grows depending on the total effect of propellant combustion, nozzle flow, and so on. The stability boundary of the fundamental mode standing wave is determined by changing one of the combustion parameters. In addition growth rates of the wave are calculated numerically in relatively low Mach number flow region for the motors with different port and nozzle throat diameters. The results obtained here agree well with the approximate solution. The same scheme is applied to a motor with shorter length and L＊-instability is observed.