Rocket Engines

Estefana Rincn Carreo Cristian Manuel Marique Vega

Leonardo Hoya Barreto

Abstract The following report is intended to explain how shape affects directly the burning rate that means the thrust of
works internally a rocket engine, taking into account the engine.
thermodynamic principles and oxidation processes that make
part of the internal performance of different types of engines.

KeywordsRocket; engines, combustion; thrust

I. INTRODUCTION
The analysis and understanding of the operation of an aerial
artifact such as rockets, allows to know different phenomena
that occur in their operation, in that analyze it is possible to
understand their functionality and development, for example,
the thrust force that has to be generated from the engines so
these vehicles can takeoff and stay in flight, which is explained
in this document as well as other aspects such as the
development and functionality of the engines and all of the
components that makes part of them.
II. TYPES OF ROCKETS ENGINES
As is well known the rockets are built based on the type of
engine that is intended to be used to propel it, these types of
engines are distinguished by the type of internal mechanism
that provide the exhaust gases. The most common rocket
engine is the chemical type in which the exhaust gases have an
elevated temperature from a chemical reaction in the
combustion chamber, the chemicals that are used in the
reaction are known as propellants, they may be solid or liquid,
basically there are two types of propellants: the fuel and the
oxidizer. It is worth to mention that there are other types of
rocket engines which their functionality is based on the
working fluids but there is no place for a chemical reaction
inside the combustion chamber, that working fluid is
transformed into exhaust gases by the addition of heat from a
nuclear reactor
Fig. 1. Scheme of a solid propellant rocket
The grain consists of two types of chemicals, first the
double-base type which consist of nitroglycerine and
nitrocellulose. On the other hand, the second type, that is the
most common nowadays, is the composite propellant which
consist of an oxidizing agent, such as ammonium nitrate or
ammonium perchlorate that are mixed with an fuel that could
be organic or metallic. The most common fuels used are
plastics, such as polyurethane. The solid propellant should not
only generate a specific impulse, it must also show
satisfactory mechanical properties to resist ground handling
and the flight conditions. It is worth to point out that the case
walls are protected from the elevated temperature from the
exhaust gases by the propellant.
B. Liquid bipropellant chemical rockets
This is the most common configuration used to rocket
engines, consist of two separate propellants contained in
separate tanks (fuel and oxidizer) and are mixed in the
combustion chamber after the injection process. The way the
propellants are fed into the combustion chamber is by pumps
or in some cases the high pressure in the tanks

A. Solid Propellant Rocket

This type of rocket engine mixed the fuel and the oxidizer
into a solid mass that is known as grain in the combustion
chamber. The grain is cemented in the interior of a case that
could be made from plastic or metal, this case has a
perforation in the center and in some cases it could have
different types of shapes as a gear or a star, this perforation
Fig. 2. Scheme liquid propellant rocket
C. Liquid monopropellant chemical rockets
There are plenty liquid chemicals can be made to form hot
gases for thrust production basically doing a decomposition in
a chamber of combustion. The most common monopropellant
used is the hydrogen peroxide, the process consists of when
this liquid is passed through a platinum catalyst mesh it
decomposes into hot steam and oxygen.
This kind of rocket engines have relatively low specific
impulse, however it is very simply because it requires only
one tank in the vehicle and can be readily turned on and off.
D. Nuclear Rockets
Basically this kind of rockets are still in research and
development; at this moment the NASA are carrying it out in
the Rover project. These kind of rockets does not use any
combustion process, essentially the functioning of these kind
of engines consists of passing a working fluid through a
fission reactor. The propellant that it is used in these kind of
engines is hydrogen; it is worth to mention that this propellant
yields the lightest exhaust gases possible, the hydrogen its fed
to the reactor by a pump and finally it would be exhausted by
a conventional nozzle
Fig. 3. Scheme nuclear rocket
E. Thermonuclear Rockets
The NASA project Sherwood is based in the assumption
that it is possible to suppose that a thermonuclear reactor
could be used as an energy source based in a nuclear reactor,
the use of these kind of engines involves phenomena as
magnetohydrodynamics which means the study of the
behavior of ionized gases that act by electric and magnetic
field
F. Ion propulsion
In these rockets the molecules of propellants that are
assume as an alkali metal it is spouse to have an electric
charge, in this case, the propellant must be ionized by passing
the propellant over heated metal grids where the ions must be
accelerated through the nozzle by an electric field, the specific
impulse of this type of engine is estimated to be as 20.000
seconds but unfortunately the electric power required is huge
which means the power generating devices weight is an
obstruction to an efficient rocket
Fig 4. Scheme ion rocket engine
 III. ROCKETS PARTS
As is known, in flight a rocket is subject to aerodynamic
forces, to make simpler analyzes the rocker is divided in four
main parts which are considered as systems as: structural
system, payload system, guidance system and finally
propulsion system

Fig 6. Scheme rocket engine

A. Combustion Chamber

The combustion chamber is normally used as a

container to retain the propellants in a determinate period of
time until it is complete the combustion. It is worth to point
out that the theoretically combustion chamber volume is a
function of the mass flow rate and the propellants, the average
density of the combustion products and finally the time
needed for the efficient combustion, that could be expressed in
the equation bellow
Fig 5. Scheme rocket parts

The structural system is considered as the fuselage of an

airplane, generally the frame is made from aluminum, titanium
(1)
and employs stringers which are connected by hoops. About
The characteristic length to find a ratio between the
the payload system is basically where it is lunched satellites,
chamber volume and the residence time is expressed as
communication equipment it is used to weather monitoring,
etc. The guidance system includes communication equipment
such as on-board computers, sensors, radars special equipment
to maneuver the rocket in flight, finally the propulsion system
(2)
Where At is the nozzle throat area. The combustion
IV. ROCKET ENGINES process requires finite amounts of time and volume from
injection to the chemical reactions, for this reason, the volume
Typically, the rocket engines consist of the nozzle, of the combustion chamber can be expressed as is shown
the combustion chamber and finally the injector as shown bellow.
below, it is well known the combustion chamber is where the
propellants burn at high pressure, following that line of
thought the combustion chamber must be strong to contain
that amount of energy resulting from the combustion process,
also, the chamber must have the sufficient length to ensure the (3)
complete combustion before the gases enter to the nozzle. In
addition, because of the heat transfer, high pressure and high
temperature the combustion chamber and the nozzle are
cooled

(4)

B. Combustion and exhaust Velocity

As is well known the combustion involves many
oxidation processes that are held in the combustion chamber,
in these case it could be right consider one of the many
reactions as the kerosene with the oxygen that is represented
by the following chemical equation
(5)
This stoichiometric mixture means that one mole of
kerosene reacts with 12.5 moles of oxygen and these generates
twelve moles of carbon dioxide and thirteen moles of water.
Also it could be right to claim that there is enough oxygen
present to chemically react with the fuel that is used. Worth
noting that is typical to find rocket engines using kerosene or
RP-1 as a fuel. One of the most important things to have into
account is have an optimum mixture ratio which provide the
highest engine performance, worth mentioning that is
measured by the specific impulse.
With regard to exhaust velocity, the impulse thrust is
equal to the product of propellant mass flow rate and the
exhaust gas ejection speed. It could be expressed and ideal
exhaust velocity as shown in the following expression
(6)
Where y is the specific heat ration, R s the universal
gas constant, Tc is the combustion temperature, M is the
average molecular weight of exhaust gases, Pc is the
combustion chamber pressure and finally P e is the pressure at
the nozzle exit. It is important to mention that the specific heat
ratio is usually about 1.2, the flame temperatures range from
2273.15K to 3873.15K and finally the chamber pressures
range about 7 to 150 atmospheres. In addition, it is necessary
to point out that in the combustion process probably will be
many dissociation of molecules among the products that
produce a significant effect on flame temperature.
C. Injector
As is well known, the injector fed the propellants into
the combustion chamber in a specific proportion to make sure
an efficient induce, also, the inductor plays and important part
as a structural element because it closes the top of the
combustion chamber against the high pressure and
temperature that it is contained, on the other hand, the injector
also performs the function of cooling processes. It is worth to
mention that the efficiencies of an injector can variate from
90% to 92% and theoretically the efficiencies are close to
100%
D. Nozzle
Mainly the function of the nozzle is convert the
energy accomplished in the combustion process into kinetic
energy, in the nozzle the high pressure, high temperature and
the slow moving is converted into lower pressure and high
velocity gas. Basically a nozzle consists of a convergent
section, a nozzle throat and divergent section or nozzle exit
area, it is important to point out that the nozzle throat is the
minimum flow area. Usually the nozzle exit area is big enough
such at the pressure in the chamber is reduced at the divergent
section to the pressure existing outside the nozzle, according
to this it is possible to stablish the condition of the pressure at
the nozzle exit and the outside pressure are the same (P e=Pa), it
has as result that thrust is maximum and the nozzle has a
correct expansion. As is known, in a rocket there have to be
two different types of nozzles because of the physic conditions
at altitude which it has to operate (sea level) and in the cosmic
vacuum, this is the reason why the nozzle may be specific
designed for their determinate mission
V. THE OPERATION
The operation of a rocket is based on the third law of
Newton, all the action has a reaction; In this case the gas
emitted by the combustion of the fuel allows the thrust to be
generated that produces the movement of the model; These
exhaust gases are ejected at high speeds by the rocket nozzle;
The nozzle initially minimizes it is divergent step from a
convergent (up to the throat) accelerates the gases and
decreases the pressure of the combustion process until Mach
1, where a shock wave is generated by, these conditions
change and from there it goes from Convergent to divergent
above Mach 1 obtaining higher speed and lower pressure. The
high velocities produced by the combustion gases made the
products in the thrust that causes the rocket to move in the
opposite direction to the exit of these until exhausting the fuel,
allowing that it is fulfilled the first law of Newton that
determines that everything The body will remain at rest and in
motion unless an external force (inertia) is activated.
If, because of internal forces, a part of that body or
system is ejected in a certain direction, the rest of the body
must move in the opposite direction. The principle mentioned
above is called the principle of the conservation of linear
momentum and states: "In every body or system of isolated
bodies, its total linear momentum is conserved, that is, it
remains constant over time."
The nozzle design is a tube through which gases flow
at very high temperatures; These tubes have a reduction that is
called throat, when the gases are produced by the combustion,
these are directed to the throat where the flow is strangulated
and the velocity of the flow that in this case is sonic is
established in this point (Mach 1), from that point the nozzle
diverges, so that the flow also does it isotropic ally to a
number of Mach greater than one (supersonic), from the throat
the temperature and the pressure decrease; The velocity
obtained as the above parameters depend on the ratio of area
between the throat and the outlet of the nozzle.
 The outlet velocity, pressure and mass flow through A supersonic flow that rotates while the flow area
the nozzle determine the amount of thrust produced. increases, is also considered isentropic (isentropic expansion);
If a supersonic flow rotates violently and the area decreases
VI. AREA RATIO shock waves are generated and the flow is irreversible, so that
The mass flow rate through a tube is constant, by including the the isentropic relation is no longer valid and the flow is
effects of compressibility for high velocity flow, it is pressurized by oblique or normal shock ratios.
determined that the mass flow rate depends on various
parameters such as: flow area, pressure, Temperature, Mach,
the ratio of specific gases and the gas constant.
(10)
As we know the effects of pressure and temperature can be
analyzed up to a Mach equal to one since there is a maximum
limit of air flow at this speed. This limitation is called
drowning of the flow; In the case of the turbine, the flow is
drowned in the throat, by not adding heat and having no (11)
pressure losses, these are constant, as is the conservation of
the specific mass; This allows to relate the equation of mass
flow with the number of Mach, taking into account the
relation of areas of the turbine.
(12)
The area ratio depends only on the Mach number and the
specific heat ratio; using the isentropic ratios, it is possible to
determine the outlet pressure and temperature of the nozzle,
and from the temperature and the Mach number the output (13)
velocity can be determined by the following expressions.

(14)

(7)

(15)

(8)

(16)

(9)

(17)

VII. ISENTROPIC FLOW

When a gas is forced through a tube, the gas

molecules are deflected through the walls of the tube; the gas (18)
density is constant when the gas velocity is less than the sound
velocity. Then, as the velocity of the gas approaches the speed If the Mach number is determined for the flow, all other flow
of sound, the effects of compressibility on the gas are ratios can be determined.
considered. Considering that if the transport medium of the
flow is compressed and expands to its initial area its
conditions return to their original state by what is said to be a VIII. CONSERVATION OF LINEAR MOMENTUM
reversible process (constant value of entropy), this process is
called isentropic.
The linear momentum of a body is a physical vector quantity,
this depends on the mass of the body and the velocity of the
body, in this case the rocket, is designated:
(19)
Where:
P = linear momentum
M = body mass
V = speed at which the object moves
The linear momentum tells us how easy or how difficult it is
to change the state of motion of a body; Then if you have a
small value as a linear moment, a small force is required to
change its state of motion, but if, on the other hand, the linear
momentum is very large, a large force will be required to
remove it from rest or to accelerate it is moving.
However, it must be borne in mind that the mass of the rocket
is not constant, as both the mass of the fuel and that of the
oxidant decrease rapidly when the combustion is carried out,
so that the mass of the rocket will decrease in the Same reason
that the masses of the fuel and of the oxidant decrease. While
the combustion is being carried out, these combustion
elements are consuming a few kilograms per second, therefore
the rocket thrust is kept constant while the mass of the rocket
is decreasing by the same number of kilograms per second
Burns the fuel and oxidant mixture.
Since the linear momentum must be kept constant, then if the
mass of the rocket decreases, the velocity of the rocket will
have to increase so that the product is maintained.
Because of the above, once the rocket is launched, its speed
increases at every instant, while its mass decreases, until the
fuel and the oxidant are exhausted, so that the combustion
ends. This allows the rocket to not burn by friction with the air
as it rises (generating fire at its tip). At the end of the mass
loss, the rocket continues its journey thanks to Earth inertia, in
the atmospheric conditions the rocket is at that moment the air
is very low and the friction in the rocket would be very low,
almost negligible; Depending on the height to which it is.
IX. SPECIFIC IMPULSE
The specific impulse that the propeller is capable of producing
be the theoretical or real and is the key to performance
potential.
In the basic form, the specific impulse is considered as the
thrust produced per unit mass this is given in units lb and Kg.
As, such, the specific impulse units would lb-s/lb and N-s/Kg.
In the set of formal units, lb can be considered to be would
simplify, given the most conventional unit of seconds [1]
As a mathematical equation to find the specific impulse is the
next:
(20)
Where the equation explain the specific impulse is same the
force of the thrust it generates, on the mass expenditure of the
nozzle by gravity.
The specific impulse delivered depends on several factors
such as cup of mass flow, thus the size of the engine, available
combustion energy of the propellant, efficiency of the nozzle,
loss of heat in the engine, lost by biphasic flow and
combustion efficiency [2]
X. THRUST OF A ROCKET ENGINE
The trust of a rocket engine can be defined as the thrust is
born in reaction to the increase in the amount of movement
that occurs in the flowing stream.
The magnitude of the thrust depends on these circumstances
the ratio between the mass and the combustion time of the
propellants by the velocity of the gases expelled by the nozzle,
Kg of propellant injected per second by the rate of exhaustion
[3]
The trust of a rocket engine is divided into two thrust, one a
net trust and two at a specific trust in the vacuum.
A.) Net trust:
The net trust is equal to the product of the mass of the
flow by the change of velocity inside the engine. In fact, the
mass of the gas flow from the nozzle is increased by the
amount of fuel added in the combustion.
The force caused by the pressure difference through
the exhaust nozzle multiplied by the nozzle area. [4]
As a mathematical equation to find net thrust:
(21)
Where in the equation there is a relation between the
mass flow of the gas from the outlet and the relation of a static
pressure and atmospheric pressure and a nozzle exhaust
velocity.
B.) Specific trust in the vacuum:
The specific impulse variable with the pressure, this
is useful to find the specific thrust in the vacuum.
As the mathematical equation to find specific thrust in the
vacuum
 (22) [1] Rockets and Satellites. Auhtor Gonzalo Tancredi,
Dpto.Astronomia (page 35). Available
in :http://slideplayer.es/slide/1673482/.(2015)
(23)
[2] Theory about rocket propellant solids, author Richard
Nakka (page 31) Available in: http://www.nakka-
rocketry.net/articles/teoria_de_los_motores_cohete.pdf
Where this equation is the speed of constant and the
constant coefficient of thrust of the nozzle; the velocity
[3] FUNDAMENTAL SPACE FLIGHT TECHINIQUE,
vacuum is the constant coefficient of thrust of the nozzle and
chapter 3 subcap.7th (page 8), Available in:
the speed of sound.
http://www.cosmonautica.es/7a.pdf

[4] Gas Turbine Engine, Author A.G.Rivas (page2), Available

XI. POWER REGULATION AND ENERGY EFFICIENCY in: http://www.incasrl.com.ar/wp-
content/uploads/2016/09/Actuaciones-de-motores-jet-calculo-
de-empuje.pdf
The difference of a regulation of power, is that the power to be
regulated must be control the rate of combustion in the [5] Fisica. Author Wilson Buffa. 5th Ed
propellants that means this used in experimental rocket
engines can be a simple composition, as the combination of [6]http://revistadigital.uce.edu.ec/index.php/ANALES/article/
two main components are fuel and oxidant; where in the part view/157/PDF
the rockets can be liquid rocket, hybrid rockets and solid
rockets, the hybrid and liquid rocket is regulation for medium [7]https://spaceflightsystems.grc.nasa.gov/education/rocket/no
of a valve and solid rocket is regulation for medium of a zzle.html
combination of area and design. The energy efficiency has
various points important for thermodynamically have two [8]https://spaceflightsystems.grc.nasa.gov/education/rocket/ise
aspects important that is the conservation of the thermal ntrop.html
energy of the gases that enter the chamber of combustion and
the transfer of kinetic energy at high speeds. [9]https://spaceflightsystems.grc.nasa.gov/education/rocket/ast
ar.html
XII. CONCLUSIONS
[10]https://scientistinme.com/2016/12/10/making-a-rocket-
nozzle/
It can be concluded that the specific impulse is the
total rocket yield and this produces a thrust to the [11] http://www.braeunig.us/space/propuls.htm#engine
rocket.
It can be concluded that the net thrust will be to the [12]
gross thrust in the rocket engines. https://www.history.nasa.gov/conghand/propulsn.htm#REF5-
It can be concluded that the propellants react in the 27
combustion chamber and this generates the thrust of
the combustion of the rocket engine.
The shock wave that forms in the throat of the nozzle
a mac that allows that the conditions of the flow
change by what obtains greater speed of impulse.
Preservation of momentum remains constant because
the speed increase compensates for the mass loss of
fuel and oxygen.
When reaching a high altitude, near the stratosphere,
the rocket is driven by inertia since the forces that act
in earth happen to be despicable or null.

XIII. REFERENCES