Rocket Propulsion Primer

This textbook covers fundamentals of rocket propulsion such as history, classification, qualitative design, quantitative design of internal ballistics and rocket vehicle optimization. It is intended to be used as a textbook by the undergraduate/advanced undergraduate students of aerospace engineering. It further describes the classification of aerospace propulsion, two-phase flows, nozzle contour design, advanced nozzle concepts (plug and expansion deflection nozzles) and materials. It also deals with the optimization of multistage rocket vehicles and their trajectories with reference to the currently operational orbital launch vehicles. This textbook contains numerous end-of-chapter problems to aid in self-learning of the students. It will be highly useful for the aerospace and mechanical engineering students. This can also be used as a reference guide by the scientists and engineers working in the areas of aerospace engineering.

Subramaniam Krishnan received degrees in mechanical engineering from the University of Madras (B.E., 1964), the Indian Institute of Science Bangalore (M.E., 1968), and in aerospace engineering from the Indian Institute of Technology Madras (Ph.D., 1976). He was a research assistant at Gas Turbine Research Establishment, Bangalore, from 1964 to 1966. He joined the Indian Institute of Technology Madras as a lecturer in 1968 and rose to the position of professor in 1987. He retired from IIT Madras in 2002. He taught a wide variety of courses in aerospace propulsion from 1968 to 2013. His research interest lies in solid propulsion: solid rockets, solid fuel ramjet, and hybrid rockets. He has several publications to his credit in these areas. He is an honorary fellow of the High Energy Materials Society of India, a fellow of the Aeronautical Society of India, and an associate fellow of American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Dr. Jeenu Raghavan received degrees in chemical engineering from the Calicut University (B.Tech., 1984) and in aerospace engineering from IIT Madras (M.Tech., 1986, and Ph.D., 1992). He served as Senior Project Officer and Research Associate (CSIR Fellowship) at IIT Madras from 1987 to 1992. Later, he did his post-doctoral studies at the Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta (1997-1999). After working for a short period of time in Bharath Dynamics Limited, Hyderabad as Assistant Manager, Propulsion, he joined the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, Thiruvananthapuram (VSSC) of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) in the year 1993 and retired from there in 2022 as the Director of Solid Propulsion and Combustion Research Group. He has more than 35 years of experience in solid rocket propulsion related fields and has several publications to his credit in this area. He got the Team Excellence Award from the Department of Space, ISRO in 2009, the Raghavaiah Memorial Team Award from the High Energy Materials Society of India in 2014, and the GSLV lifetime achievement award in 2021.