Experimental study of solid-propellant ignition transient and flame spreading under convective flows

A project on unsteady three-dimensional numerical simulation of solid-prope llant rocket motors is being developed by this research group. In this gene ral approach, ignition and flame spreading are critical points, Experimenta l investigations were performed to support the modeling approach. The paper describes the first step of this experimental investigation. Attention is focused on the ignition delay and flame-propagation velocity for a flat sam ple of a solid propellant containing ammonium perchlorate and hydroxyl-term inated polybutadiene. Different measuring techniques are implemented, which can be extended to more complex geometries and to different operating cond itions, according to the needs of the numerical-simulation approach.