Combustion Experiments in Hydrogen Peroxide/Polyethylene Hybrid Rocket with Catalytic Ignition

Resultsfrom 100 tests oflab-scalehybrid rocketmotorsusing hydrogen peroxideand polyethylenearepresented herein. The bulk of the tests utilized 85% hydrogen peroxide with low-density polyethylene. A new consumable catalytic-ignition device has been developed to provide rapid, reliable ignition using stabilized hydrogen peroxide. Regression measurements indicate that at low chamber pressures (100psi)a classic diffusion-dominated behavior is noted with mass e ux exponents very near the theoretical value of 0.8. However, at higher chamber pressures tested (200 and 400 psi ),radiative-dominated behaviorisnoted foraveragemasse uxes varying between 0.1 and 0.3 lbm/(in. 2 s). Through the optimization of aft mixing length, combustion efe ciencies in excess of 95% were obtained in these tests. No signie cant nonacoustic or acoustic instabilities were noted in these tests; chamber pressure e uctuations were less than 3.5% zero-to-peak of mean.