Numerical analysis of the stability of solid rocket motors: Two-phase flow aspects

A computational model of two-phase flow in a solid rocket motor is used to show that mass transfer from solid particles suspended in the internal flow can destabilize the motor. The two-phase compressible Navier- Stokes equations are solved using a Total Variance Diminishing (TVD) scheme. The solid particles are treated as a continuum; an Eulerian approach is used to model them. The mass transfer between the particles and the gas phase is modeled as a simple constant-temperature phase change process. The characteristics of the mass transfer process are significantly different than what occurs when aluminum particles burn in an actual rocket motor. Nevertheless, the addition of mass transfer to an otherwise typical Navier-Stokes solution of internal solid rocket motor flow demonstrates important physics which are relevant to solid rockets containing aluminum.