ABSTRACT
CHEMICAL PROPULSION: WHAT IS IN THE HORIZON?
G.D. Roy
30.1 INTRODUCTION
Propulsion research has progressed steadily and well along focussed avenues
during the past several decades. The outstanding contributions by talented
researchers in the combustion discipline have led to the unprecedented fuel econ-
omy, reliability, and safety of the propulsion engines of today. Whereas funda-
mental problems in combustion related to propulsion are being solved at labora-
tories (in universities and industry), innovative systems are made commercially
available. Laboratory experiments and numerical simulations lead to design
optimizations that would otherwise involve heavy capital investment and long
development times. Advances in Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) and in
computational hardware led to a new frontier in numerical simulation and pre-
diction of combustion phenomena through Computational Combustion Dynam-
ics (CCD). The advent of microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology,
diode lasers, miniature sensors, controls, and diagnostics makes it possible to
control combustion starting at the fuel tank all the way to the exhaust pipe. To-
day's combustion researcher, developer, and designer have extremely powerful
tools at hand.
