Reconstructed Ballistic Data Versus Wax Regression-Rate Intrusive Measurement in a Hybrid Rocket

Burning tests of a laboratory-scale hybrid rocket engine were carried out with gaseous oxygen and a microcrystalline-wax-based fuel to look into the feasibility of using an intrusive resistor-based sensor for measuring the fuel regression rate. This initial screening was driven by the need for real-time control of the oxidizer-to-fuel ratio in altering-intensity swirling-flow-type hybrid rocket engines aiming at performance optimization. A traditional ballistic reconstruction technique was critically revised in order to build up a framework for comparison with the measured data; with the measured aft-chamber pressure and oxygen mass flow rate time histories, the fuel regression rate and port diameter were reconstructed over the firing by estimating the combustion efficiency with the constraint that calculated and measured fuel mass consumed are equal. This technique invariably suffers from the issue of presenting multiple solutions for the fuel mass flow rate in the proximity of the optimum mixture ratio, for which a novel variable-efficiency approach is proposed. Reconstructed data show that regression rate is nearly constant in each firing, yielding dependence upon the port diameter other than the mass flux. Resistor-sensor raw data displayed large deviation from the ballistic results for the slower burning rate of the sensor support. A detailed analysis is presented.