ABSTRACT
Solid rocket motors are used for propulsion units of both suborbital and orbital
aerospace vehicles. Their main advantages are their simplicity, low cost and
reliability. Due to attainable high thrust they have a wide application as boosters (as
space shuttle boosters, Delta rocket boosters). They were also used as main stages,
retrorocket units, stage separation control units, main propulsion units for suborbital
vehicles. An interior ballistics model is implemented and applied for a double base
and composite propellant boosters to be used for a boosted dart suborbital vehicle.
Erosion and condensed phase are taken into account and numerical results are
shown in comparison with experimental data obtained on test firings for each motor.
The advantages of the implementation are that it offers a fast calculation of the main
parameters of the solid rocket motor unit (thrust, burn time, specific impulse, total
impulse). The solid fuel characteristics and the geometry of the motor are contained
within two input files while the results of the calculations are presented to the user in
a several output files. The motors are built using steel as a casing material and test
firings are performed on a horizontal test bench.