Fundamental and applied theoretical, numerical and experimental research in the field of propulsion ranging from fuel mixture, combustion to development of engines and motors are conducted here at IIT-Madras. Studies are conducted in these broad areas,

1. Rocket Propulsion and Solid Propellant Combustion

2. Airbreathing Propulsion and Combustion

3. Multiphase Flow Simulation

4. Combustion Instability

5. Optical Flow/Combustion Diagnostics

6. Cascade flows, High fidelity CFD in Turbomachines

Test Facilities

• Window bomb

  • A cylindrical combustion chamber

  • Ability to handle elevated pressure upto 150 bar

  • Facility to visualize and record propellant combustion with external illumination

• Erosive burning facility

  • Capability of burning solid propellant under high mach number(including supersonic) cross flow conditions

  • Detection of burning rate changes under different cross-flow conditions, using high speed photography

• Static solid rocket motor test facility

  • Capability of burning 80 gm of solid propellant within one second

  • Provision to test nozzleless solid rocket motor configuration, solid fuel ramjets and hybrid rocket motors

• Gelled liquid propellant rocket motor static test facility

  • To study the injection characteristics and atomization of impinging jets involving gelled propellants

  • It is the benchmark for developing rocket motor thrust chambers

• Diagnostic techniques: Thrust calculation for supersonic combustor by load cells

• Thermal measurements: Thin film gauges for heat transfer studies