Hybrid rocket engine fuel grains with radial energy compositional variations
AssigneeFirehawk Aerospace, Inc.
InventorRonald D. Jones
Life of this patent
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Abstract
A method of making a fuel grain for a hybrid rocket engine includes deposing beads of fuel grain material onto mandrel using additive manufacturing to form a cylindrical fuel grain, each bead including a polymer based rocket fuel material and a nanoscale metallic material. The deposing includes deposing multiple, adjacent beads to form concentric layers of beads, wherein a composition of the beads of the fuel grain material differs between the beads of a first layer and the beads of a second layer of the fuel grain.
Claims20
A method of making a propellant for a rocket engine, the method comprising:
- using a single deposition head, deposing beads of an energetic material adjacent to one another using additive manufacturing to form a cylindrical propellant defining a combustion port extending axially therethrough, wherein the energetic material comprises a polymer and an additive, the deposing comprising:
- deposing multiple, adjacent beads of different composition to form concentric layers of beads, wherein a composition of the beads of the energetic material differs between the beads of a first layer and the beads of a second layer of the cylindrical propellant, including varying a rate at which the additive is provided to the single deposition head between deposition of the beads of the first layer and deposition of the beads of the second layer.
A method of making a propellant for a rocket engine, the method comprising:
- deposing beads of an energetic material adjacent to one another using additive manufacturing to form a cylindrical propellant defining a combustion port extending axially therethrough, the deposing comprising deposing multiple, adjacent beads of different composition using additive manufacturing to form a cylindrical propellant comprising concentric layers of beads and defining a combustion port extending axially therethrough, the deposing comprising:
- deposing beads of a first layer of the cylindrical propellant using a first deposition head supplied with a first composition of energetic material, and
- deposing beads of a second layer of the cylindrical propellant using a second deposition head supplied with, a second composition of energetic material different from the first composition to the second deposition head.
A method of making a propellant for a rocket engine, the method comprising:
- deposing beads of an energetic material adjacent to one another using additive manufacturing to form a cylindrical propellant defining a combustion port extending axially therethrough, the deposing comprising:
- deposing multiple, adjacent beads of different composition to form concentric layers of beads, wherein a composition of the beads of the energetic material differs between the beads of a first layer and the beads of a second layer of the cylindrical propellant;
- and
- adjusting a dimension of the beads between deposing a first bead and an adjacent second bead.
Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.