Date of Award

2004

Document Type

Dissertation

Degree Name

Doctor of Philosophy (PhD)

Department

Bioinformatics & Computational Biology

First Advisor

Dr. M. Keith Hudson

Abstract

In the presented work, experiments were conducted to assess the utility of plume opacity monitoring for hybrid rocket diagnostics. The first phase of the work involved measuring plume opacity at a single wavelength and then at two wavelengths simultaneously. Results showed excellent correlation between plume opacity and rocket motor firing cycle and correlation between plume opacity and oxidizer flow rate, thereby validating the utility of the technique. Additionally, a spectral dependence of plume opacity was demonstrated that indicated the possible presence of transparent particulates in the plume. Further phase 1 experiments investigated the performance requirements of a laser-based instrument to measure the median diameter, standard deviation of the diameter distribution, and real and imaginary components of the refractive index of aerosol particulates by measuring the aerosol opacity at multiple wavelengths and fitting the data to Mie scattering theory. In the second phase of the project, the instrument was designed and constructed and was tested with available test aerosols. A theoretical analysis of the system capabilities and its applicability to measuring particulates in the hybrid rocket plume was performed. The performance envelope of the instrument is somewhat limited by the nature of the aerosol particles under test; however, bracketing of one or more parameter values improves the measurement reliability of the other parameters. The phase 1 data indicating the possible presence of transparent plume particulates suggests that the aerosol measurement instrument may have utility in measuring plume particulates.

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