Universal behaviour in erosive burning of solid propellants

Abstract

This paper considers the extensive data and correlations on the erosive burning of solid propellants. A relatively simple nondimensional relationship between the ratio of the actual to nonerosive burn rate (η) and a quantity g, which is the product of g₀-the ratio of free stream mass flux to the mass flux from the surface for nonerosive condition- and Re₀^m, where Re₀ is the Reynolds number based on the nonerosive mass flux of the propellant and port diameter, is shown to correlate most data within the accuracies of the experiments with m=-0.125. This shows the above relationship to account for the effects of pressure, aluminum, even up to a proportion of 17%, burn rate catalysts, and motor size. It is concluded that the suggested correlation between η and g may be adopted universally for most practical propellants.