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Radiation Emitted from Rocket Plumes
Author(s) -
Deimling Lukas,
Liehmann Wolfgang,
Eisenreich Norbert,
Weindel Martin,
Eckl Wilhelm
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
propellants, explosives, pyrotechnics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.56
H-Index - 65
eISSN - 1521-4087
pISSN - 0721-3115
DOI - 10.1002/prep.19970220310
Subject(s) - plume , propellant , rocket (weapon) , wavelength , radiation , infrared , radiance , materials science , spectral resolution , optics , spectrometer , spectral line , remote sensing , physics , optoelectronics , chemistry , aerospace engineering , meteorology , geology , astronomy , organic chemistry , engineering
The signature of rocket plumes can be used for detection, identification and guidance of rockets. The objective was to investigate the signature of various types of solid rocket propellants by application of spectroscopic methods. The emission and transmission characteristics of plumes were studied experimentally, the results were analyzed based on molecular bands and continuum radiation. The model formulations include a nitramine propellant, a double‐base propellant and a composite propellant. Applied were rapid‐scanning filter wheel spectrometers for the wavelength region from 1.2 μm to 14 μm with a time resolution of 50 spectra/s and a wavelengths resolution of 1% of actual wavelength. The UV/VIS wavelengths region was recorded by an OMA system with wavelength resolution of 0.1 nm and 1 nm and time resolution of 10 spectra/s. Molecular bands of water and carbon dioxide dominate in the near infrared and infrared. Depending on composition, continuous radiation indicates particles in the rocket exhaust. A code was developed to calculate molecular bands and continuous radiation using temperature and species distributions found by thermodynamic estimation to obtain the radiance of the plume. Comparison with experimental data delivered plume temperatures.