Analysis of thermal, chemical and physical properties of paraffin and beeswax blended fuels for hybrid rocket applications Saravanan G, Avi THUMAR, Ayush DEVAK, Amritansh SINGH Journal of Thermal Engineering, 2026 Fuels made of paraffin and beeswax was created for hybrid rocket engines, and carbon, boron, and aluminium powders were added.Scientists used Scanning Electron Microscopy, X-ray Diffraction, and Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy for study of these fuels' thermal, chemical, and physical properties.The fuels were found to form homogeneous mixtures, and key chemical structures were identified.In tests, a beeswax-based fuel blend provided a 15% greater heat of fusion and 10% greater thermal stability than the pure paraffin-based fuels, and improved mechanical and combustion performance compared to the same properties of the paraffin fuels, providing an increase of specific impulse of up to 12%.The results indicate that paraffin / beeswax combinations show promise as a green, convenient and high performance fuel in a hybrid rocket.
Experimental studies on combustion performance of beeswax-paraffin blended solid fuels in a hybrid rocket Indian Journal of Chemical Technology, 2023 The study intends to investigate the physical, chemical and thermal characteristics of paraffin blended fuels to determine their suitability as a solid fuel in a hybrid rocket. Wax fuels are a viable and efficient alternative to conventional rocket fuels, having excellent structural strength and thermal and mechanical properties. By utilizing both axial and swirl injection technique, the combustion performance of paraffin – beeswax blended fuels have been tested with a fabricated cylindrical grain in a laboratory-scale rocket setting along with oxygen. The test outcomes revealed solid fuel compositions of more beeswax content in paraffin wax on an oxygenated gaseous environment with a swirl-flow injection method has the highest average regression rate of 1.649 mm/sec at 181 kg/m2s mass flux. Axially injected oxygen with pure paraffin wax has the lowest value of 0.85 mm/sec at 96 kg/m2s. The regression rate comparisons revealed that oxygen injection by a swirl injector increased the regression rates by 40% for mass fluxes greater than 80 kg/m2s. Compared to other studies, the combustion efficiencies have been obtained in this study are good. Blended fuels can manage and increase combustion efficiencies for axial and swirl flow conditions. Swirl injectors outperform axial injectors for oxygen injection and allow for a higher proportion of Beeswax combined with paraffin. This study exclusively designed and manufactured an axial injector and swirl injector, according to the required dimensions of a lab-scale hybrid rocket's combustion chamber, injector, and exhaust nozzle, and their performances have been evaluated.
Regression rate performance of paraffin wax and bees wax –Gox with varied grain configuration in a hybrid rocket motor Saravanan G., Shanmugam S., Veerappan A.R. Aircraft Engineering and Aerospace Technology, 2020 Purpose This paper aims to determine the regression rate using wax fuels for three different grain configurations and find a suitable grain port design for hybrid rocket application. Design/methodology/approach The design methodology of this work includes different grain port designs and subsequent selection of solid fuels for a suitable hybrid rocket application. A square, a cylindrical and a five-point star grained were designed and prepared using paraffin and beeswax fuels. They were tested in a laboratory-scale rocket with gaseous oxygen to study the effectiveness of solid fuels on these grain structures. The regression rate by static fire testing of these wax fuels was analyzed. Findings Beeswax performance is better than that of paraffin wax fuel for all three designs, and the five-slotted star fuel port grain attained the best performance. Beeswax fuel attained an average regression rate ≈of 1.35 mm/s as a function of oxidizer mass flux Gox ≈ 111.8 kg/m2 s and for paraffin wax 1.199 mm/s at Gox ≈ 121 kg/m2 s with gaseous oxygen. The local regression rates of fuels increased in the range of 0.93–1.194 mm/s at oxidizer mass flux range of 98–131 kg/m2 s for cylindrical grain, 0.99–1.21 mm/s at oxidizer mass flux range of 96–129 kg/m2s for square grain and 1.12–1.35 mm/s at oxidizer mass flux range of 91–126 kg/m2 s for a star grain. A complete set of the regression rate formulas is obtained for all three-grain designs as a function of oxidizer flux rate. Research limitations/implications The experiment has been performed for a lower chamber pressure up to 10 bar. Originality/value Different grain configurations were designed according to the required dimension of the combustion chamber, injector and exhaust nozzle of the design of a lab-scale hybrid rocket, and input parameters were selected and analyzed.
Numerical simulation of mixing enhancement in scramjet using micro vortex generator G. Saravanan, C. Suresh Procedia Engineering, 2012 To improve the efficiency of supersonic combustion apart from cavity flows, micro vortex generator is an active research for high speed combustion. The effectiveness of such vortex generators greatly depends on location and strength of growing boundary layer, which makes the experimental study complicated thereby numerical simulation becomes a useful tool prior to experiments. Reacting flow simulations have been carried out for cavity based and micro vortex based combustor using a commercial software FLUENT. At the combustor inlet, pure air is considered and kerosene is injected from the wall surfaces. It was found that at the exit plane there is considerable amount of unburnt kerosene vapour in the core regions and unused oxygen in the side wall regions in the baseline combustor due to improper fuel air mixing. Modified combustor with micro vortex generators is found to improve the fuel air mixing and performance of combustor. These results helped to understand the effectiveness of vortex generators as a mixing enhancing device in high speed combustion flows.
