On 4/26/06, Henry Baker <hbaker1@pipeline.com> wrote:
People in the solid rocket business discovered this by accident (literally!).
If the burning discovers a crack, the rate of burning goes way up & the rocket blows up.
You might check the geometry that these rockets use -- I would imagine that most would want to keep the overall pressure relatively constant, so the burning surface area should remain constant, as well.
The typical way to do that with a solid rocket motor is to begin with a star-shaped cross section, which burns to a circular section at the casing. The perimeter of the star is the same as the circumference of the circle, so there is even burning (and constant thrust) throughout the burn of the motor. Kerry Mitchell -- lkmitch@gmail.com www.fractalus.com/kerry