Abstract
Recently, many small satellites have been developed due to the miniaturization and integration of onboard devices. The satellites’ transportation capacity is greatly affected by the propulsion performance of upper-stage motors, such as solid kick motors, which must have higher performance. One of the methods is to increase the nozzle expansion ratio of solid rocket motor, which can be easily achieved by adjusting the nozzle throat diameter and suppressing the burning rate of solid propellants. One way to suppress the burning rate is to add catalysts. In this study, the burning rate was measured by mixing negative catalysts that reduce the burning rate of the solid propellant. The results were used to verify the effectiveness of the propellant in enhancing propulsion performance by reducing its burning rate. From the combustion test results, it was determined that mixing the selected negative catalysts reduced the burning rate of the solid propellant. As a result of the theoretical analysis based on the obtained characteristic values of the burning rate, the theoretical total impulse was enhanced when 10 parts of the negative catalysts were mixed with the propellant. These results indicate that propulsion performance can be enhanced by reducing the burning rate.
