The Measurement of Instantaneous Exhaust Temperatures of Liquid Fuel Rockets

摘要

Instantaneous temperatures were measured at several points in the neighborhood of the first Mach cone of the exhaust of a three-inch, alcohol-oxygen rocket. A two-path method using continuous background radiation in several spectral intervals about 150A wide, free of line and band structure, was employed. Temperature oscillations of high frequency were observed under normal operating conditions. The measured temperatures were approximately 200K lower than those measured by Bundy and Strong using the sodium line reversal method. Spectrographic studies were made of the rocket exhaust flame. The radiation was found to be essentially gray-body radiation only in the region 4800-5500A. Temperatures of the rockets from their slopes in a reduced Planckian field indicate values close to the two-path method. The errors of a two-color method are large. Temperatures by the two-path method agree substantially with the average temperatures determined by Kurlbaum's method. (Author)