Media Event Media Briefing Arif Karabeyoglu President & CTO SPG, Inc. June 29, 2012 spg-corp.com
SPG Background SPG, Inc is an Aerospace company founded in 1999 to advance state-of of-the-art propulsion and power generation technologies. SPG s main focus is to develop technologies that are inherently safe, cost effective and environmentally friendly. Innovative thinking is the key driver to SPG s simple but elegant solutions to the technological challenges. SPG operates in Silicon Valley (Sunnyvale, CA) Headquarters Butte MT Motor Testing Washington DC Coordination Office Lakeport CA Small Test Facility 2
SPG Clients Government: DoD (USAF), NASA, FAA, DARPA, State of Montana Commercial: Scaled Composites, (Virgin Galactic), Pratt Whitney, Lockheed Martin, Whittinghill Aerospace Partners: Stanford University, NASA Ames, MADA 3
SPG s Core Business High High Performance Performance Hybrids Hybrids Paraffin-based/LOX Paraffin-based/LOX Tech. Tech. Carbon Carbon Composite Composite Motor Motor Hybrid Rockets Paraffin-based Paraffin-based SFRJ SFRJ Ramjets SPG Propellant Develop. Paraffin-based Paraffin-based Fuels Fuels Nytrox Nytrox Oxidizers Oxidizers Energetic Energetic Additives Additives N2O Safety Green Energy Regulatory Regulatory (FAA) (FAA) Development Development of of Safety Safety Devices Devices Ammonia Ammonia Fuel Fuel Enabling Enabling Renewable Renewable Energy Energy 4
SPG Capabilities One-Stop Stop-Shop Shop Approach 5 Design and fabrication of hybrid rocket systems Casting of fuel grains Motor testing Propellant development and testing Mechanical properties Thermal/ballistic properties Modeling/Analysis FEA (NASTRAN) Multiphysics (COMSOL) CFD (Fluent) Chemical Kinetics (Chemkin( Chemkin) Design (CAD/CAM) Fabrication Full fabrication shop including CNC Composite vessel winding
Advanced Hybrid Rockets 6
Hybrid Rockets Potentially Paradigm Shifting Technology Liquid Rockets: Fuel and oxidizer in liquid phase Shuttle main engine Mature Technologies Hybrid Rocket Alternative Solid Rockets: Fuel and oxidizer in solid phase Shuttle boosters Fuel and oxidizer are physically separated One of the two is in solid phase 7
Why Hybrid Propulsion? Compared to Simplicity Safety Performance Related Other Cost Solids - Chemically simpler - Tolerant to processing errors - Reduced chemical explosion hazard - Thrust termination and abort possibility - Better Isp performance - Throttling/restart capability - Reduced environmental impact Liquids - Mechanically simpler - Tolerant to fabrication errors - Reduced fire hazard - Less prone to hard starts - Higher fuel density - Easy inclusion of solid performance additives (Al, Be) - Reduced number and mass of liquids - Reduced development costs are expected - Reduced recurring costs are expected 8
Hybrid Propulsion Technical Challenges Technical Challenges Low regression rates for classic hybrid fuels Results in complicated fuel grain design Low frequency instabilities Instabilities are common to all chemical rockets They need to be eliminated Expensive and long process Solution Strategy Solutions to these technical issues should be such that they do NOT compromise the simplicity, safety and cost advantages of hybrids. Comparable or better performance compared to liquids and solids. 9
Regression Rate Versus Fuel Port Design Fuel Grain w rc Port Case Intermediate Regression Rate Single Row Wagon Wheel Complicated Design Low Regression Rate Multi Row Wagon Wheel Very Complicated Design High Regression Rate Single Circular Port Simple Design Increasing Regression Rate Advantages of Single Circular Port Design Excellent fuel utilization (98-99%) versus (85-90%) for multiport systems Simple design/fabrication requirement for a web support structure Excellent grain structural integrity Smaller pre-combustion chamber 10
Regression Rate Law for Paraffin-Based Fuel Based on on a theory developed at at Stanford University formulated paraffin-based fuels for for hybrid rockets Paraffin-based fuels Burn 3-5 times faster than Classical hybrid fuels 11
Paraffin-Based Fuels Technology Progress Motor testing experience (SPG/Stanford/NASA Ames) Small Scale(i.e. 50-100 lbf): ~1,000 tests Scale-up (i.e. 900-15,000 lbf): ~125 tests Oxidizers: Liquid Oxygen, Gaseous Oxygen, Nitrous Oxide, Nytrox SPG work on paraffin-based fuel technology Formulation (Keep cost ~ 1 $/lb) Processing (22 inch OD fuel grains 700 kg) Structural testing and modeling Internal ballistic design of single circular port hybrids Scale up motor testing (ongoing) Large single circular port hybrids are feasible 12
Low Frequency Instabilities - Remedies SPG s Solution SPG developed a technology to stabilize hybrid rocket motors Without the use of heaters or TEA injection By a unique proprietary design of the motor configuration No active control, moving parts, complicated parts or exotic materials used Demonstrated in LOX/Paraffin-based motor testing Classical Remedies Vaporize oxidizer by Heat addition Pyrophoric fluids (TEA) These solutions introduce complexity minimizing the simplicity advantage of hybrids The design also delivers high combustion efficiencies (95+%) 13
Air Force SBIR Ph. III Program Program Fundamentals Since July 2005 SPG has been on an AFRL Phase III SBIR contract to develop and test advanced hybrid rocket technologies One of the primary objectives of the program is to Develop scalable design tools for hybrid rockets Significant level of understanding of the complicated physical and chemical processes has been achieved Established leadership in advancing hybrid rocket technologies A talented team of propulsion engineers Continue technology development Program Status/Future Time to transition the technology to a product 14
Advanced Hybrid Rockets Single circular port design Excellent fuel utilization Simple fabrication Fast Burning Fuels Low cost fuel Environmentally friendly Advanced Ballistic Design Advanced Hybrids Carbon Composite Motor Light weight construction Low cost All in house manufacturing Stable operation with NO External heating Pyrophoric liquid injection High combustion efficiency (>97%) 15
Summary and Potential Applications of the Technology Key Virtues of the Technology High performance for the LOX/Paraffin-based system Delivered vacuum Isp value of ~340 sec for a nozzle expansion ratio of 70 High combustion efficiency (97-98%) Motor operating at the optimal average O/F of 2.8 Low O/F shift Low fuel sliver fraction: < 1% Simplicity and fault tolerance of hybrids is retained No external heating is required for stability Safe (Zero TNT equivalency and reduced fire hazard) Affordable (Both development and recurring) No exotic materials No parts with tight machining tolerance No active cooling Mission flexibility Applications Launch vehicle Booster or upper stage Tactical or strategic missile propulsion, target drones In space, in orbit Sub-orbital space tourism Sounding rocket Aircraft thrust augmentation 16
22 Inch Motor Development Objectives Test the scalability of the key technologies Motor stability Motor efficiency Processing Structural integrity Develop scalable cost models for advanced hybrid rocket motors Hybrid Replacement Orion 38 Solid Rocket Motor Replacement for ATK s Orion 38 Upper Stage Motor A systems study was conducted At the same total impulse, hybrid is almost 20% lighter Hybrid leads to 30% improvement in the payload capability of the Pegasus launch vehicle Hybrid would be 5-10 times less expensive Throttling, stop/restart are other advantages of the hybrid 17
Importance of Today s s Test 22 Inch Flight Weight Motor Test Series June 29 firing will be the fifth test of series The first 4 firings were short duration tests on the first version of the 22 inch motor Smooth ignition has been achieved Stable and efficiency operation has been demonstrated for short durations Thermal/Structural design has been verified as well June 29 test will use a newer improved version of the 22 inch motor This will be the longest firing to date 18
Thank You! 19