SCREENING OF METAL ADDITIVES IN ABS POLYMER FUEL FOR ENHANCED PERFORMANCE IN HYBRID ROCKET MOTORS: A COMPUTATIONAL ANALYSIS USING CEA

Abstract

This study explores the use of metal additives in acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) polymer fuel to enhance hybrid rocket motor (HRM) performance through computational analysis using Chemical Equilibrium with Applications (CEA) software. ABS was chosen for its thermoplastic properties, enabling complex 3D-printed fuel designs. Hybrid rockets combine solid fuel with liquid oxidizers, offering operational simplicity and safety, but conventional polymer fuels often have low regression rates and combustion efficiencies. We tested various metal additives—aluminium (Al), boron (B), nickel (Ni), copper (Cu), and iron (Fe)—across 1,800 unique conditions at chamber pressures of 1 to 30 bar and oxidizer-to-fuel ratios between 1.1 and 12. Results of the characteristic velocity (C*) indicated that Al and B significantly improved combustion performance, while Fe, Cu, and Ni reached optimal performance at a minimum loading of 1% with no further improvements. Future work will focus on B-Al composites and experimental validation of metallized ABS fuel. This extended abstract is based on a full paper to be published in the Defence Technology Journal.