The effect of massive blow-by on the initial trajectory of a free-flight rocket
Abstract
An experimental program has been conducted to determine the unbalanced forces on a tube-launched rocket due to the choking and the subsequent reversal (or blow-by) of the exhaust flow. An underexpanded jet of unheated air was exhausted into a non-tipoff launch tube. The surface of the simulated rocket was instrumented with static pressure orifices, located in diametrically opposed pairs. The differential pressure measurements were used to compute the rocket's trajectory in a three degree-of-freedom program. Relatively large asymmetric pressure differentials were measured on the surface of the simulated rocket. Although the lateral displacement of the rocket was relatively insensitive to these pressure differentials, they caused large oscillatory variations in the pitch angle and in the pitch rate.
- Publication:
-
AIAA, Aerospace Sciences Meeting
- Pub Date:
- January 1978
- Bibcode:
- 1978aiaa.meetT....B
- Keywords:
-
- Aerodynamic Forces;
- Exhaust Flow Simulation;
- Rocket Flight;
- Rocket Launching;
- Trajectory Analysis;
- Angular Velocity;
- Captive Tests;
- Chokes (Fuel Systems);
- Convergent-Divergent Nozzles;
- Flow Distribution;
- Pitch (Inclination);
- Pressure Distribution;
- Reversed Flow;
- Fluid Mechanics and Heat Transfer