US 11,913,410 B1
Additively manufactured rocket fuel grains and competitive simulation of the same
Chelsey Hargather, Socorro, NM (US); Mark Kaufman, Auburn, CA (US); Michael McPherson, Socorro, NM (US); Jillian Marsh, Austin, TX (US); Matthew Hinton, Socorro, NM (US); Dane Fradenburg, Socorro, NM (US); Maureen Gannon, San Francisco, CA (US); Jason Hundley, Albuquerque, NM (US); and Michael Hargather, Socorro, NM (US)
Assigned to X-Bow Launch Systems Inc., Albuquerque, NM (US)
Filed by X-Bow Launch Systems Inc., Albuquerque, NM (US)
Filed on May 20, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/325,565.
Claims priority of provisional application 63/049,056, filed on Jul. 7, 2020.
Claims priority of provisional application 63/027,887, filed on May 20, 2020.
Int. Cl. F02K 9/24 (2006.01); B29C 64/314 (2017.01); B33Y 70/10 (2020.01); F02K 9/10 (2006.01); B29C 64/386 (2017.01); B29C 64/371 (2017.01); B33Y 40/00 (2020.01); B33Y 50/00 (2015.01); F02K 9/72 (2006.01); F02K 9/18 (2006.01); B29L 31/20 (2006.01); B29K 55/02 (2006.01)
CPC F02K 9/24 (2013.01) [B29C 64/314 (2017.08); B29C 64/371 (2017.08); B29C 64/386 (2017.08); B33Y 40/00 (2014.12); B33Y 50/00 (2014.12); B33Y 70/10 (2020.01); F02K 9/10 (2013.01); F02K 9/18 (2013.01); F02K 9/72 (2013.01); B29K 2055/02 (2013.01); B29L 2031/20 (2013.01)] 22 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method of making a fuel grain for use in a rocket motor or gas generator, the method comprising:
blending a first energetic nanoscale metallic compound and a second compound suitable as a rocket fuel to form a third compound;
the third compound serving as feedstock material;
wherein the feedstock material is formed by successive drying and heating of the feedstock material; wherein said heating increases internal friction of the feedstock material, said internal friction further elevating the feedstock material temperature;
wherein successive drying and heating of the feedstock material produces a preestablished viscosity that is highly adapted to use in an additive manufacturing apparatus;
wherein the additive manufacturing apparatus is operatively connected to a computing system, said computing system being configured to perform competitive simulations,
wherein said competitive simulations comprise instruction sets and subroutines of a competitive simulation computer program, the instruction sets and subroutines being stored on storage device and coupled to a computer, said instruction sets and subroutines being executed by one or more processors and one or more memory architectures provided within said computer;
wherein said competitive simulations provide optimized rocket motor fuel grains and rocket motor operation parameters, the fuel grains forming agglutinated layers of solidified fuel grain embedded with permeable fuel grain pores having a diameter;
wherein the diameter of said permeable fuel grain pores may be modulated by a user to modify rocket motor ballistics profiles;
wherein said permeable fuel grain pores are spatially deposited within the rocket motor as determined by stochastic deposition simulations; and
wherein the additive manufacturing apparatus forms the fuel grain using the feedstock material.