Characteristic velocity

Characteristic velocity or $c^{*}$ , or C-star is a measure of the combustion performance of a rocket engine independent of nozzle performance, and is used to compare different propellants and propulsion systems.

Formula

$c^{*}={\frac {p_{1}A_{t}}{\dot {m}}}$

$c^{*}$ is the characteristic velocity (e.g. m/s, ft/s)
$p_{1}$ is the chamber pressure (e.g. Pa, psi)
$A_{t}$ is the area of the throat (e.g. m², in²)
${\dot {m}}$ is the mass flow rate of the engine (e.g. kg/s, slug/s)

References

Rocket Propulsion Elements, 7th Edition by George P. Sutton, Oscar Biblarz

This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.