# Nuclear Rocket:
In a nuclear rocket, a working fluid, usually liquid hydrogen, is heated to a high temperature in a nuclear reactor, and then expands through a rocket nozzle to create thrust.
Solid Core
The most traditional type uses a conventional (albeit light-weight) nuclear reactor running at high temperatures to heat the working fluid that is moving through the reactor core. This is known as the solid-core design, and is the simplest design to construct.
They are limited by the melting point of the materials used in the reactor cores. Since the efficiency of a rocket engine is related to the square root of the temperature of the working fluid, the solid core design needs to be constructed of materials that remain strong at as high a temperature as possible.
Nuclear reactions can create much higher temperatures than the temperatures the materials can withstand. Even more limiting is the cracking of fuel coatings due to the large temperature ranges (from 22 K up to 3000 K over the length of a 1.3m fuel rod), and the necessity of matching coefficients of expansion in all the components. Using hydrogen propellant, a solid-core design typically delivers specific impulses (Isp) on the order of 850 to 1000 seconds, about twice that of liquid hydrogen-oxygen designs such as the Space Shuttle Main Engine.
Liquid Core
Dramatically greater improvements are theoretically possible by mixing the nuclear fuel into the working fluid and allowing the reaction to take place in the liquid mixture itself. This idea is the basis of the so-called liquid-core engine, which can operate above the melting point of the nuclear fuel--whatever the container wall can withstand while actively cooled by the hydrogen. The liquid-core design is expected deliver performance on the order of 1300 to 1500 seconds
These engines are currently considered to be very difficult to build. The reaction time of the nuclear fuel is much longer than the heating time of the working fluid and therefore requires a method to trap the fuel inside the engine while allowing the working fluid to easily exit through the nozzle. Most liquid-phase engines have focused on rotating the fuel/fluid mixture at very high speeds to press the fuel to the outside by centripetal force.
To get the updated and remaining notes of nuclear rocket, please click the below link or visit our new website aerospacenotes.com...
https://aerospacenotes.com/propulsion-2/nuclear-rocket/
https://aerospacenotes.com/propulsion-2/nuclear-rocket/
Table of Contents:
- What Is Nuclear Rocket?
- Classification Of Nuclear Rocket
Solid Core
Liquid Core
Gas Core - Performance Of Nuclear Rocket