Browsing by Author "Wang, Ruoyan"

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    Additively manufactured aluminium nested composite hybrid rocket fuel grainswith breathable blades
    (Taylor & Francis, 2023-08-18) Qu, Dandan; Lin, Xin; Zhang, Kun; Li, Zhiyong; Wang, Zezhong; Liu, Guoliang; Meng, Yang; Luo, Gengxing; Wang, Ruoyan; Yu, Xilong
    Hybrid rocket engines suffer from the restricted mechanical properties and low regression rates of current polymeric fuel grains. We propose a three-dimensional printed aluminium (Al) nested composite fuel grain with millimetre-scale lattice pores (referred to as Al-L). In this study, breathable Al blades with micrometer-scale interconnected pores (Al-B) and blades combining millimetre-scale and micrometer-scale pores (Al-B&L) are designed. The formation mechanisms, characteristics, and effects of the breathable blades are analysed in simulations, micro-computed tomography, and cyclic compression tests. The mechanical properties of the composite fuel grains are investigated numerically and in compression tests. Al-B has the highest Young’s modulus at more than 15 times that of a paraffin-based fuel grain and Al-B&L has the highest yield stress at 4 times that of the paraffin-based fuel grain. Referring to combustion properties, the regression rates of the Al-B and Al-B&L grains are respectively 63.3% and 58.2% greater than the regression rate of the paraffin-based fuel grain.