Supercavitating Rocket System

Dynamics of a Nonsmooth Supercavitating Vehicle System

As a representative example of a C continuous system, a four-dimensional model of the dive-plane dynamics of the supercavitating body shown in Figure 1 is considered. This model includes a dominant, nonsmooth nonlinearity associated with the planing force [1,2]. The original non-smooth system is approximated by a smooth counterpart, and it is examined as to how well the smooth system captures t...

Electric Rocket Engine System R&D

1. Pulsed Plasma Thruster Pulsed plasma thrusters (PPTs) are expected to be used as a thruster for a small satellite. The PPT has some features superior to other kinds of electric propulsion. It has no sealing part, simple structure and high reliability, which are benefits of using a solid propellant, mainly Teflon (poly-tetrafluoroethylene: PTFE). However, performances of PPTs are generally lo...

Computed Transient Supercavitating Flow over a Projectile

To improve the understanding of the unsteady behavior of supercavitating flows, the author used a three-dimensional Navier-Stokes code (CFDRC, 2000) to model the two-phase flow field around a hemisphere cylinder. The governing equations are discretized on a structured grid using an upwind difference scheme. For different body shapes and cavitation numbers, the cavity shape was determined over t...

Rocket Apparatus

Advanced acoustic measurement system for rocket noise source characterization

Development of the next generation of space flight vehicles has prompted a renewed focus on sound source characterization and near-field propagation modeling. Without advancements in these areas, large uncertainties in vibroacoustic loading estimates on space vehicles and payloads may result in structural designs that are either insufficient or excessive. Improved measurements in an extreme env...