A facility for testing the acoustic combustion instability characteristics of solid rocket propellants

A facility is described that has been specifically designed for small-scale laboratory testing of solid rocket propellants. A description of the facility is provided which includes the general plan of the facility and features related to personnel safety. One of the major activities in the facility is testing solid rocket propellants for combustion response to acoustic perturbations. A detailed discussion of acoustic instability testing is given including specially designed combustion apparatus, data acquisition, and signal conditioning. Techniques of data reduction are reviewed and some of the instrumentation problems that arise in this type of testing are mentioned along with practical solutions.