Development of a performance simulator of solid propellant rocket motors

Abstract

Most traditional simulators used in amateur experimental rocketry make use of basic equations and zero-dimensional models to recreate the performance of solid propellant rocket motors. The usefulness of these simulators is limited, and tend to fail with scale. A new simulator based around idealized and nonidealized phenomena is described in this work, along with the theory used to build it. This simulator considers the motor as a one-dimensional body and discretizes the propellant and chamber along the motor center axis in multiple finite volumes. The new simulator, dubbed PropSim yields results that, although not exactly equal to the real results from a static test, do present and take into account cases and circumstances overlooked by traditional simulators, correcting some of their shortcomings