Search

The present paper deals with pressure oscillations in regenerative liquid propellant guns (RLPG) presenting the state-of-the-art research into sources and control of these combustion instabilities. Pressure oscillations with amplitudes up to 50 % of mean pressure and frequencies up to 60 kHz or more are present in experimental data of RLPGs, especially at medium and large calibers. Amplitudes increase with the volumetric energy density of the liquid propellant and the mass flow rate during injection. Frequency analyses reveal that both acoustic modes and combustion noise are components of the recorded oscillations. Acoustic modes, in particular, have the potential to couple to resonant modes in near-field mechanical structures. A multi-phase, multi-dimensional model investigation at ARL indicates that pressure waves reflected from internal boundaries are amplified as they pass the combustion zone of the highly pressure-sensitive liquid propellant in a localized region near the injector. Experimental data lead to a similar understanding of the amplification of pressure oscillations in RLPGs. Experiments in the United States and in Germany confirm that the pressure oscillations can be mitigated by altering the combustion characteristics of the liquid propellant. Also, techniques that more effectively disperse the liquid propellant jet and thereby decrease the local accumulation of liquid propellant, may reduce pressure oscillations as shown in 30-mm RLPG experiments. Further, energy-absorb-ing chamber walls or liners can serve as broad-band filters and have been shown experimentally to be effective in reducing the amplitude of all frequencies. In addition, physical methods such as cavities and baffles reduce significantly specific acoustic frequencies of the oscillations.

Regenerative liquid propellant guns (RLPGs) have been studied for many years. RLPG firings almost always show large, high-frequency pressure oscillations. To study this phenomenon, a fluid dynamics model of the combustion chamher/gun tube of an RLPG has been developed. High-frequency oscillations are generated naturally by the physics modeled in the code. Dimensional analysis has been applied to the governing equations to furnish insight into the dynamic relationships among pressure, density, temperature, droplet size, etc. The dimensional analysis predicts a scaling law between different-sized fixtures. The computational results exactly match these predictions. This agreement establishes the basis of self-similarity in the physical processes (e.g., tradeoff between droplet size and burning rate) and, in addition, helps verify the computational model.