Интересное сообщение на AROCKET о соплах из бакелита с кевларом:
Pardon the delay, but I have finally gotten around to putting together a
brief report on our tests using phenolic resin/aramid pulp composition
nozzles.
The basic intent was to create a nozzle that was substantially lighter
in weight than an existing graphite unit. The first idea was to utilize
phenolic resin (obtained in the package deal through Pat Bunn a while
back) combined in varying proportions with aramid pulp (finely process
Kevlar, a commercial product combined with EPDM in the Shuttle solid
booster liners). The aramid pulp is extremely light and bulky, and the
phenolic was thin enough in visocsity to allow the possiblity of wetting
out the pulp adequately.
Silicon molds were made from existing 2" nozzles, from motors in the
2500 NS range. We first cast a few test samples using only the Phencast
phenolic resin, which was allowed to 'set' at room temperature for 8
hours, then baked at the required temp and time as advised by the
manufacturer. Normal processing was observed, with the only anomaly
being that the resin seemed very sensitive to moisture (it will foam
with even a trace amount of moisture present in any cups or utensils).
Once the moisture was in the resin, high temperature processing resulted
in further foaming in the mold, which expanded the part beyond tolerances.
Aramid pulp was then added, beginning with a 10 parts resin/1part pulp
by volume mix, and going down the scale by 5 part to 1 steps to 40
parts resin to 1 part aramid pulp. Some interesting challenges were
encountered here: The aramid pulp -must- be dried thoroughly (it loves
to absorb moisture), and was done so for every step in a nalgene
dessicator at elevated temperature, as a first attempt to mix caused
extreme foaming. It is also necessary to process the resin/pulp mixture
under vacuum, and with the addition of a drop of silicon oil, in order
to eliminate air from the mix. It seems the extremely small aramid
fibers like to hang on to a small air bubble, and getting all of that
air out is quite a task. For some of the heavier pulp ratio mixtures,
repeated vacuum processing combined with careful 'screen push'
techniques (to further wet out the small fibers) was necessary.
In reference to our initial aim (lighter weight vs. graphite), the
aramid/phenolic samles did indeed weigh less, by a factor of 1/5 in the
40/1 mix, and by a factor of about 1/2 in the 10/1 mix.
The nozzles were found to maintain more dimensional integrity at pure
resin-40/1 mix ratios, and move around more as more aramid pulp was
added. This could be due to incomplete air or moisture removal (it was
tough...), or perhaps due to thermal issues once the mixture was at cure
temperature. I tend to believe more in the second option, as the nozzles
would expand more at the areas of higher material thickness in the
nozzle shape.
We eventually even tried vacuum cure with heat, which resulted in the
most consistent results.
About 2/3 of the samples were useable for tests (due to dimensional
issues above). The nozzles were O-ringed and greased, as normal with
Kosdon motor designs, and retained by an aft snap ring. The propellant
was a variation of our 16% aluminized formulation as used in the carbon
cased motors that we are developing, about 2500 NS with a 3.5 second burn.
The plain phenolic nozzle displayed predictable performance, with
minimal erosion. The phenolic/aramid nozzles displayed a fairly
predictable erosion rate, the nozzles with higher aramid pulp content
showing more extreme erosion. The 40/1 mix had about .050 erosion,
fairly uniform through the convergent and throat areas, atpering to zero
erosion at the tail end of the divergent section. The 10/1 mix had about
.180 erosion, in the same pattern, but this drastically affected the
motor performance, as might be expected. The other samples ran a fairly
even progression between these extremes. There was no cracking or other
mechanical/thermal problems with any of the samples, so the thermal
performance of the combination was good.
So, we were not especially thrilled with the performance of this test
series due to the excessive erosion, but it was just a matter of getting
knowledge with a new combination, really. The erosion on the minimal
aramid nozzles was acceptable, but the weight offset was not big enough
to justify the increased labor that went into the process. One
interesting variant that I have been exploring in the shop has been to
allow the moisture laden aramid into the resin, allow the mixture to
foam (with careful relief and moldwork to contain dimensional
properties), and then to saturate the 'foamed' nozzle in cured state
with materials that allow a type of transpiration cooling.... or even
simply materials that sublime during the burn to protect the nozzle.
Preliminary tests along this line are promising, and -extremely- light
(1/10 of the weight of graphite).
Happy holidays to all - Dave Triano