Extinction-reignition superiority in a single-stage sounding hybrid rocket

摘要

Information visualization has been performed for researching a single-stage sounding launch vehicle with hybrid rocket engine by using design informatics. The primary objective of this study is to reveal extinction-reignition superiority, which is one of the beneficial points of hybrid rocket, for extending the downrange and the duration in the lower thermosphere. In our hybrid rocket, swirling-flow oxidizer is furnished with solid fuel; we adopt polypropylene for solid fuel and liquid oxygen for oxidizer. A multidisciplinary design optimization is implemented by using a hybrid evolutionary computation; data mining is carried out by using a scatter plot matrix to efficiently perceive the entire design space. It is consequently revealed that extinction-reignition prolongs duration although it does not provide any effects on spreading downrange. Scatter plot matrix results indicate physical mechanisms of design variable behaviors for the objective functions and also the roles of the design variables via bird's-eye visualization of the entire design-space constitution. Furthermore, they suggest a hypothesis to extend downrange. (C) 2016 Elsevier Masson SAS. All rights reserved.