“Ultimately, this will enable the United States to substantially enhance its industrial base for achieving high performance, stable combustion technology for rocket engines,” said AE Regents Professor Krishan Ahuja, the project’s PI and the and Head of Aerospace and Acoustics Technologies Division/ATAS-GTRI.

“We are very excited about this important project, and deeply grateful for the opportunity to make direct contributions to the rocket propulsion industry in the United States.”

Joining Ahuja in this two-year research enterprise will be colleagues from GTRI, GT-AE and Purdue University’s School of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

The researchers will focus on developing a suite of software-based design tools for predicting and analyzing stability characteristics of combustion devices based on hydrocarbon-fueled, oxidizer-rich staged combustion rocket engine cycles. Their research is expected to be completed in 2017.