Estimation of Regression Rate from Image Analysis in Hybrid Rocket Slab Burners

The combustion process of solid propellants in hybrid rocket engines can be visualized using hybrid rocket slab burners. By employing high-speed cameras, a vast amount of data can be gathered from the combustion chamber, enabling the estimation of the combustion’s internal ballistics features both qualitatively and quantitatively. In this paper, the high-speed videos acquired are analyzed to calculate the regression rate of the solid fuel. Two different image processing techniques are used to calculate the variation of the height of the slab, one based on the estimation of the flame position, and one based on a neural network, to provide a reconstruction of the slab contour over time. The techniques are applied to the test results of two different slab burners, to evaluate their robustness and flexibility over different experimental conditions.
info:eu-repo/semantics/published