245. Some Aspects of Propellant Tank Sizing
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Paper
Abstract
This paper is concerned with the presentation of major factors and related parameters that are significant in their influence upon the propellant tank sizing for a bi-propellant liquid missile. Contributing factors are presented which if not discovered and corrected prior to the completion of a firm design, costly changes in design or losses in vehicle payload or range may result.
An expression based on the basic equation of motion and the ‘gold dust twins’ of rocketry – specific impulse and mass ratio is derived. Some specific requirements of correctly sized propellant tanks are listed. The specific task of propellant tank sizing starts with the mission objectives – require the availability of pounds expendables at a specific optimum mixture ratio, and on the other hand, the task may start with the corollary requirement – the desired propellant tank sizes are specified. All of the factors influencing tank sizing will contribute to one of three volume components, which are the Expandable, and Residual propellant fluids volume components and the Unusable volume component. The sum of these components will determine the total required tank volume. In this paper, these components are presented in much more detail.
