Numerical computations of solid-propellant nonsteady burning in open or confined volumes

The chapter describes an approach to solid propellant combustion that combines experimental, analytical and numerical methods. Section II presents the mathematical model and procedures for its numerical solution. Section III is focused on steady state combustion configuration, which is the starting point for the nonlinear combustion stability analysis, and allows a first validation of the numerical work by comparison with the available analytical solutions. Section IV deals with the numerical validation of the analytical predictions of the burning stability theory. Section V compares numerical and experimental results concerning ignition, pressure driven transients, and self-sustained oscillatory combustion near the pressure deflagration limit. Section VI describes numerical results concerning nonlinear frequency response, unsteadiness induced by radiation pulses, and combustion extinction by heat sink.