Cold Tests and the Dynamic Characteristics of the Pintle

Type Solid Rocket Motor

Hyun Ko1
Seyeon E&S, Daejeon, South Korea
Ji-Hyung Lee2, Hong-Bin Chang3
Agency for Defense Development, Daejeon, South Korea
Woong-Sup Yoon4
Yonsei University, Seoul, South Korea

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Nomenclature
A=
a
Cp
Cx
Cy
c
dt
Fx
Fy
f, g
h
i
j
K

amplitude of oscillation
= cylinder diameter
= pressure coefficient
= force coefficient in the x direction
= force coefficient in the y direction
= chord
= time step
= X component of the resultant pressure force acting on the vehicle
= Y component of the resultant pressure force acting on the vehicle
= generic functions
= height
= time index during navigation
= waypoint index
= trailing-edge (TE) nondimensional angular deflection rate

1
Ph.D, General Manager, R&D Dividsion, Email : hyunko@seyeon-ens.com.
2
Ph.D, Senior Researcher, Email : im_ljh@add.re.kr.
3
Senior Researcher, Email : humanchb@korea.com.
4
Ph.D, Professor, Mechnical Engineering, Email : wsyoon@yonsei.ac.kr.
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American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics

I. Introduction

OCKET propulsion systems used for satellite vehicles and guided missiles are classified into solid rocket
motors (SRM) and liquid rocket engines (LRE). The SRM generates thrust by the combustion of solid
propellant which is combined oxidizer and fuel, while the LRE generates thrust by burning a mixture of
independently injected liquid oxidizer and liquid fuel into a combustion chamber.
With a conventional solid propellant motor, it is hard to change the design thrust profile because, once it is
ignited, the solid propellant is continuously or unstoppably burned until all the propellant is consumed. On the other
hand, the thrust of the LRE can be controlled by regulating the injection mass flow rates of liquid oxidizer and liquid
fuel into the combustion chamber (Matthew J. Casiano, 2010). But, the LRE has disadvantages such as complex
structures, poor storage and slow responsiveness.
Many researchers have studied new propulsion systems which can complement these pros and cons of SRMs and
LREs. In particular, many studies of new propulsion systems are based on SRMs because the SRM has dominated
the tactical missile field owing to its inherent simplicity and reliability with no significant design compromises.
To find breakthrough technologies to control the thrust of the solid propellant rocket motor, many studies have
been carried out in the last three or four decades. Representative studies for the SRM thrust control are dual-thrust
technology, pulse motor technology, and pintle technology. Dual-thrust technology is to control the burning surface
of the solid propellant by designing the grain shape, and pulse motor technology divides solid propellant into
multiple sections using an insulation technique. It was developed to increase mission range and end-game
maneuverability (Harold Dahl, 1996). Pintle technology, to achieve the variable thrust for the mission (Ostrander,
2000; Burroughs, 2001), is basically similar to that of the flow control employed for the globe valve, of which the
cross-sectional area of the flow passage is changed by the plug.
In the pintle-perturbed nozzle, the nozzle throat area is mechanically altered by moving a tapered plug, which is
called a pintle. The pintle is inserted into or extracted from the throat, which makes the annular throat area decrease
or increase, respectively. The desired thrust profile can be achieved, regardless of any slight propellant imperfection
or throat erosion, by changing the throat area, so that the chamber pressure is effectively controlled. Thus, pintle
technology allows a solid rocket motor to take advantage of throttling thrust, maintaining the inherent advantage of
the solid rocket motor.
The first development of controllable solid propulsion technology with a variable thrust pintle nozzle on an axial
motor was demonstrated by Aerojet Corporation in the 1960s and 1970s. The functionality of pintle nozzle
technology was demonstrated, but its application in fielded systems was not accomplished due to the packaging and
weight effects associated with the limited technologies of the past. However, critical breakthroughs in the 1990s in
high-temperature materials, electromechanical actuators and control electronics allowed researchers to take
advantage of controllable solid propulsion technology with its inherent system capabilities and mission benefits
(John Napior, 2006). One example of pintle technology in the 1990s is rocket propulsion systems, which are an
essential part of the escape system employed with ejection seats. In 1995, pintle escape propulsion systems were
also demonstrated and validated by Aerojet Corporation and many military aircraft now utilize such systems these
days (S.G. Rock, 1997). The other application of pintle technology is in hit-to-kill vehicle steering based on the solid
propulsion concept. During the last three decades, a solid propellant Divert Attitude Control System (DACS) has
been developed for missile defense systems in the USA and Europe. Pintle technology is the essential technology of
the DACS (J. Coon, 1993; J.F. Sevellec, 1987).
Earlier theoretical studies have reported that controllable solid propellant rocket motors can provide higher
performance than conventional systems. Previous experiments on pintle technology have focused on demonstrating
the throttling ability over a wide range of thrust levels. The effects of propellant composition, grain configuration
and different pintle geometries on throttling were examined (Unmack, 1987). The feasibility of the pintle technology
was illustrated by a closed-loop pressure control test (Christina et al., 2003; John et al., 2003). In addition,
computational fluid dynamics (CFD) have been used to visualize the internal shock structures in pintle nozzles
(Randall et al., 1995; Prozan, 1999). Generalized claims have been made on the specific impulse of a pintle nozzle
rocket in terms of the pintle stroke and the pintle geometry (Randall, 1995). With the increase of the pintle stroke
toward the throat, the nozzle expansion ratio rises because the throat area is gradually decreased by the tapered
pintle head. The presence of the pintle causes perturbation of the nozzle flow and a complex internal shock structure
is formed in the supersonic flow regime. Strong shock waves depending on the stroke of the pintle heavily dissipate
the flow momentum and thus the specific impulse (Isp) is generally degraded. This loss of the total pressure of the
flow can be prevented by optimizing the pintle tip contour, which can alleviate the occurrence of a strong shock.
Recently, in Korea, studies have reported on steady state performance of pintle nozzles using a cold flow test and
numerical method (Kim et al., 2008; Lee et al., 2008). A CFD study to find a pertinent turbulence model and to
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American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics

simulate the internal flow structure of the pintle nozzle has been performed (Kim et al., 2009). The unsteady
characteristics of the pintle nozzle have been studied (Lee et al., 2011). Nevertheless, in-depth or integrated
knowledge of the fundamentals of the pintle-perturbed nozzle flow and the unsteady characteristics of pintle
movement is very limited in the open literature.
In the present study, a pintle-perturbed nozzle has been studied theoretically, experimentally and numerically. In
order to predict pintle nozzle performance (thrust and chamber pressure) variation with pintle movement, a
theoretical model was derived. This model, based on one-dimensional nozzle theory, was used to predict the
chamber pressure, and the semi-empirical method of Kalt and Badal[xxx] was applied to predict the precise thrust of
the separated nozzle. An electrical actuator which controls the pintle stroke was installed for the dynamic test of
pintle nozzle and the thrust, chamber pressure and pintle stroke were measured. Computational fluid dynamics
(CFD) with dynamic mesh motion were apopted to understand the flow structure, thrust and chamber pressure
variation in terms of pintle movement. To validate the numerical prediction, a representative actuating range of
dynamic tests was reproduced numerically. Thrust and chamber pressure variation according to the pintle movement
are measured and compared with the theoretical model and the CFD results
The mass flow rate provided into the test chamber is fixed at constant and therefore variations of the propellant
burning rate of SRM are not simulated in this study. Although this is not a real situation, it can reduce the
dimensions of the problem and give a clearer picture of the pintle-perturbed nozzle flows. Extended study of the
needle-type pintle nozzle accompanying the propellant burning-rate remains a task for the future.

II. Theoretical and Experimental Approach

In supersonic fluid flow, the mass flow rate through the throat area can be described by Eq. (1), including the
discharge coefficient (CD) which depends on the throat geometry and isentropic mass flow rate. Generally, the value
of the discharge coefficient (CD) for a supersonic nozzle is from 0.97 to 1.0.
( k1) [2( k1)]

actual CD m
isentropic CD A P0
m
*

k 2
RT0 k1

(1)
In supersonic nozzle flow, the ideal thrust without consideration of the flow separation effect at the nozzles
divergent section can be predicted by isentropic relation Eq. (2). However, the flow pattern of the pintle-perturbed
nozzle generally has flow separation in the pintle operating range because the expansion ratio of the nozzle increases
with the pintle insertion; therefore the precise thrust prediction for the pintle nozzle is required.

F CF

isentropic

uE PE PA AE
P0 A* m

(2)

where

(k1) (k1)

2k2 2

k1 k 1

(k1)/k

P
1 e
P0

PE PA
E
P0

For a nozzle in which the flow separation is from the nozzle divergent section, the thrust coefficient (CF) should
be expressed as the sum of two terms: the flow upstream of the point of flow separation, and the flow downstream of
this point. For the first term, (CF)isentropic in Eq. (2) can be used, but for the second term, the static pressure at which
separation occurs has to be predicted. The semi-empirical method for predicting the flow separation point developed
by Kalt and Badal (NASA SP-8039) is adoped in this study.
F isentropic

A. Dynamic model for the pintle motor performance

For the derivations of the governing equations of internal
pressure behavior for the pintle rocket, the schematics of the
pintle rocket are shown in Figure 1. In this figure, the grain
shape is simplified as an end-burning type, and the mass
balance in the free volume will be discussed as a driving
mechanism of the internal pressure behavior according to the
pintle movement.

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American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics

Figure 1. Schematics of the pintle motor

As you can see in Figure. 1, the mass generated from the grain surface,

g
m

, should be balanced with the nozzle

d
m

exit mass flow rate,

, and the mass accumulated in the free volume is expressed as the following equation:
dM
g
d
m
m
dt
(3)
The first term on the right hand side in Eq.1 represents the accumulated mass and can be calculated by the
following equation:

dV
d dP
dM d

gVfv g fv Vfv g
dt dt
dt
dP dt
g Vfv P

(4)

where
, ,
are the gas density of the chamber, free volume size and internal chamber pressure,
respectively.
Assuming the system is adiabatic and using the equation of state, the internal pressure can be predicted as the
following equation:
dV
dP c2
gm
d g fv

m
dt Vfv
dt
(5)
where c is the speed of sound of the gas in the chamber.
Assuming no erosive burning, the mass generation rate at the grain surface and the discharged mass flow rate
through the nozzle exit can be calculated as follows (G.P. Sutton, 2001; John L. Bergmans, 2003; Christina, 2003;
S.L. Turk, 1973):

g p AbaP n
m

(6)
(k1) [2(k1)]

d A* P
m

k 2
RT k 1

A* PCD

(7)

P Ab a n
, , , are the propellant density, burning surface area, temperature coefficient and burning rate
*
exponent or combustion index, and A , k , R , T are the nozzle throat area, specific heat ratio, gas constant and static
where

temperature.
Assuming the free volume change is related only to the propellant grain surface movement due to propellant
burning, the time rate of free volume change is expressed as follows:

tm
Vfv t Vfv,0 g dt
0
p
(8)

where fv ,0 is the initial free volume size before the propellant burning starts.
From Eq. (6), the time rate of change of free volume can be calculated by the following equation:

dVfv
dt

AbaP n

(9)
Finally, the density change in the free volume can be derived by the same method. That is, for a given free
volume, the mass generation rate should be balanced with the mass discharge rate and the volume change by surface
burning. This is expressed by following equation:
d g
dV
1
gm
d g fv p AbaP n A* PCM g AbaP n / Vfv

m
dt Vfv
dt
(10)
Summarizing all the equations, three equations are used to predict the dynamic characteristics of the pintle motor
as follows:
dP c2

A aP n A* PCM g AbaP n
dt Vfv p b
(11-1)

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American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics

d g
dt
dVfv
dt

pAbaP n A* PCM g AbaP n /Vfv

(11-2)

AbaP n

(11-3)
The above equations (11-1) to (11-3) are expressed in vector form and can be time-integrated using a simple
explicit Eulers method or Runge-Kutta method. For numerical efficiency and stability regarding the time step size,
the 4th order Runge-Kutta method is employed in this paper.
For the application of the above equations to the cold flow model, the term related to the mass generation rate

in
from the grain surface is changed to the constant mass flow rate supplied from the pressurized vessel ( g
).
Assuming the free volume changes resulting from the pintle movement are very small compared to its initial size,
the time rate of change of the free volume size is considered to be negligible. Simplifying and rearranging the
equations, the governing equations for the cold flow pintle nozzle are rewritten as follows:
dP c2
A* PCD

m
dt Vfv in
(12-1)

d g
dt
dVfv
dt

in A* PCD / Vfv
m

(12-2)

(12-3)
Chamber pressure and thrust variation in terms of pintle movement can be predicted using equations (11-1) to
(11-3) and (2). These theoretical predictions cannot describe all of the real phenomena, but easily represent the
effects of pintle parameters on the dynamic characteristics in the pintle nozzle. However, for precise understanding
of the dynamic characteristics of the pintle nozzle, experimental and numerical approaches are required.
B. Experimental Setup of the Pintle Dynamic Test
Schematics of the baseline experimental setup for the pintle nozzle test are shown in Figure 2, in which the test
assembly, sub-components, and instrumentation are also illustrated. This test setup aims at simulating the thrust
generation of a conventional solid rocket motor, and the gas produced by combustion of the propellant is replaced
with high-pressure air.
To supply the high pressure air into the test chamber, the test facility has two pressure reservoirs with 20m 3
volume which are connected with the regulator that controls pressure of the downstrea. Regulated receiver pressure,
and test pressure, can be maintained by the pressure regulator for about 230 seconds. The choking orifice which is
installed behind the receiver with 1m 3 volume was used to maintain a constant mass flow rate into the test chamber;
hence the total pressure in the motor could be increased or decreased according to the pintle movement. Flexible
tubes connecting the reservoir with the motor cell mitigate the stress caused by the displaced motor cell. The
honeycomb flow stabilizers are installed in the chamber in order to straighten flow having non-uniform velocity
distributions from the flexible tubes. Flexure and A-frame structures are installed between the test chamber and the
frontal wall. The chamber total pressure (P 0) and the static pressure distribution along the nozzle inner wall (P W) are
recorded by sixteen pressure sensors. A cross-sectional view of the test setup is shown in Figure 2

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American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics

Figure 2. Experimental setup for the dynamic test of pintle nozzle

III. Results and discusstions
To understand the general dynamic behaviors of the pintle nozzle, the dependency of the thrust and chamber
pressure variation on throat area changes is investigated using a dynamic model as a needle-type pintle moves to the
maximum pintle stroke.
Figure. 3 is a plot of geometric variation in terms of pintle movement with a constant speed of 12.5 mm/sec,
which is the same speed as the dynamic test condition.
Figure. 4 shows the predicted thrust and chamber pressure variation by one-dimensional theroy. In this case, the
free volume size of chamber is 1.0x107 mm3 and the mass flow rate into the chamber is 1.721 kg/sec. As expected,
chamber pressure and thrust are changed by the pintle movement. However, three noteworthy phenomena are shown
in Figure. 4. The first appeared during the pintle insertion process (Region I). After pintle actuating is stopped, the
chamber pressure and thrust change continuously and converge to certain values. Secondly, thrust shows an
interesting trend which is opposite to the well-known theory. In other words, when the pintle is inserted into the
throat, thrust first decreases and then increases although the chamber pressure is monotonically increasing (Region
I), and when the pintle is extracted from the throat, thrust first increases and then decreases although the chamber
pressure is decreasing (Region II). Thirdly, the magnitude of thrust between the pintle insertion and extraction
processes is different. The difference of chamber pressure and thrust gradient between the pintle insertion and
extraction processes means that even though the pintle takes the same route, there is a hysteresis between the two
processes.
Therefore, in order to validate these characteristics obtained by analytic solutions, through precise investigation
of dynamic behaviors of the pintle nozzle, cold flow tests and computational fluid dynamic approaches were
performed.

Figure 3. Throat area variation and

pintle stroke

Figure 4. General dynamic behaviors of pintle nozzle

A Dynamic performance of pintle nozzle

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To validate dynamic characteristics of pintle nozzle obtained by dynamic model, cold flow test with
experimental facility as mentioned in previous section was carried out. In this test, pintle speed is 12.5mm/sec,
chamber free volume is 5.0x107mm3, mass flow rate is 1.6244 kg/s, pintle stroke is adjusted in three steps; 0mm,
24mm, 34mm, and pintle shape is needle type (Figure 2).
Figure. 5 shows the experimentally obtained chamber pressure and thrust changes according to the pintle
movement. As predicted by the dynamic model, three interesting phenomena with the pintle nozzle were also
observed in the cold flow test. In order to investigate the physical phenomena in the pintle nozzle accurately, the
effective CFD simulation region in which the three interesting phenomena could be observed was determined
(dotted box in Figure 5).

Figure 5. Dynamic test results and determined CFD simulation region

Figure 6 and 8 present the evolution process of tip shock waves (lip shock, trailing shock) behind the pintle tip,
and oblique shock as the pintle is inserted into and extracted from the nozzle throat in the range from 24 mm to 34
mm. Depending on the movement of the pintle, tip shock waves (lip shock, trailing shock) move in a downstream or
upstream direction. In addition, oblique shock which occurs at the nozzle wall is oscillated.
However, even though the pintle stops at a certain position, the internal flow structure of the nozzle changes
slowly until it reaches an equilibrium state (Figure 7 and 9). In the pintle insertion process, after movement of the
pintle stops, shock waves in the nozzle move slowly downstream (Figure 7), while in the pintle extraction process,
shock waves move upstream. This means that chamber pressure doesnt reach an equilibrium state, in spite of
stopping the pintle movement, (Figure 9).

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Figure 6. Mach contour (upper) and sonic

line (lower) of pintle insertion process

Figure 7. Mach contour (upper) and sonic

line (lower) after pintle stopping (insertion
process)

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Figure 8. Mach contour (upper) and sonic line

(lower) of pintle extraction process

Figure 10. Chamber pressure changes on

pintle movement

Figure 9. Mach contour (upper) and sonic

line (lower) after pintle stopping (extraction
process)

Figure 11. Mass flow rates on pintle

movement

Figure 10 compares the measured chamber pressure with the predicted solutions using an analytic model and
CFD. The chamber pressures predicted by the analytic and CFD results show good agreement with the measured
chamber pressure in the whole simulated region, but there is a little deviation in the increasing and decreasing
intervals of the chamber pressure. The main reason for the deviation between the CFD prediction and measurement
is that the estimated free volume size for simulating the chamber pressure does not exactly match the real free
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American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics

volume size of the test chamber. In addition, the deviation between the dynamic model and CFD is considered to be
caused by differences of the location which represents chamber pressure. In other words, the chamber pressure
predicted by the dynamic model has the same value in all positions of the chamber, whereas the chamber pressure
predicted by CFD is extracted from the same location as the pressure sensor in the test.
Comparing the measured chamber pressure with solutions predicted by CFD, the predicted ones are a little lower
in the period of increasing chamber pressure and a little higher in the decreasing period relative to the measured
result. This is because the estimated free volume size for predicting the chamber pressure using CFD is larger than
the real volume because with constant mass flow, the pressure of the large free volume should reach equilibrium
more slowly than that of the small free volume. This tendency will be discussed in more detail in a later sections.
Figure. 11 is a plot of mass flow rate variation caused by the pintle movement. The mass flow rate through the
nozzle throat predicted by Eq. (1) is compared with the CFD result in Figure. 11. MFR(Mass Flow Rate) in the
dynamic model showed good agreement with the CFD result, except that there is a slight difference in the gradient
in the converging region. There are two things to note in Figure. 11. The first is that the mass flow rate decreases
rapidly for the pintle insertion process and increases rapidly for the pintle extraction process, and the second is that
the magnitude of the MFR peak differs between the pintle insertion and extraction processes. Rapid MFR variation
occurs because the change in nozzle throat area precedes the chamber pressure variation. In other words, the mass
flow rate after the pintle is inserted into the nozzle throat is determined by the reduced throat area caused by the
pintle movement and chamber pressure just before the nozzle throat area changes. Therefore, as the pintle insertion
process reduces the nozzle throat area, the MFR decreases till the pintle stops. On the contrary, in the pintle
extraction process, in spite of reducing the nozzle throat area, MFR is increased till the pintle stops because the
chamber pressure just before the nozzle throat area change is higher than that of the enlarged throat area caused by
the pintle movement.
However, this phenomenon in the pintle insertion process will show a different tendency in a real SRM because
the mass generated from solid propellant increases as the chamber pressure rises (Eq. (6)). On the contrary, the MFR
is increased in the pintle extraction process despite reducing the nozzle throat area. This tendency is because the
chamber pressure just before the pintle moves is higher than just after the pintle moves.
The difference in the magnitude of the MFR peak between the pintle insertion and extraction processes is also
explained by the fact that the chamber pressure of the pintle insertion process is lower than that in the pintle
extraction process. Figure. 12 shows this more clearly.
In Figure. 12, the Mach contours of the pintle insertion and extraction processes are shown in the upper and
lower half. It is observed that the internal flow structures are very different in both cases at the same pintle strokes.
The nozzle flow of the pintle extraction process is more developed than that of the pintle insertion process; that is,
the discharged mass through the nozzle throat in the pintle extraction process is greater than that in the insertion
process. This means that the change in the nozzle throat area precedes the chamber pressure variation, and the mass
flow rate through the nozzle throat is determined by the chamber pressure just before the nozzle throat area changes.
These mass flow rate behaviors have a strong influence on the hysteresis of the pintle-perturbed nozzle.
Figure. 13 compares the measured thrust with the solutions predicted by the analytic model and CFD. The
predicted thrust showed good agreement with the measured thrust and the trend of the thrust is similar to the mass
flow rate (Figure. 11) and can be explained with the same logic as the descriptions of MFR variation because thrust
is directly proportional to MFR (Eq. (2)). Figure. 14 shows the hysteresis phenomena of chamber pressure and thrust
in the cold gas test. Between the pintle insertion and extraction processes, the magnitude of thrust hysteresis is
bigger than that of chamber pressure hysteresis.
C. Force acting on the pintle
While moving the pintle, estimating the force acting on the pintle is an important parameter to design the
actuating system. But it is difficult to measure the forces acting on the pintle experimentally. Because the CFD
results are in good agreement with the experimental results, the forces acting on the pintle in the CFD results are
examined in this study.
Figure. 15 depicts the forces acting on the pintle by integrating the distribution of wall pressure on a pintle tip in
the axial direction. The direction of forces acting on the pintle is the same as the direction of the thrust in Figure. 13.
In view of the magnitude of the forces, the force on the pintle decreases as the pintle is inserted into the nozzle
throat (from A to B in Figure. 15) and the force on the pintle increases as the pintle is extracted from the nozzle
throat (from C to D in Figure. 15). This means that forces acting on the pintle are also dependent on changes in the
MFR for the pintle movement process.
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American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics

However, the force acting on the pintle after the MFR reaches equilibrium (C in Figure. 15) is not recovered to
the magnitude of A. This phenomenon can be explained by the fact that the lengths of the pintle tip, exposed to a
supersonic flow, are the same at points A and D as at points B and C. In other words, the positions of the sonic line
in A and D are located at the front of the geometrical nozzle throat and the positions of the sonic line in B and C are
located at the rear of the geometrical nozzle throat.

Figure 12. Mach contour at the same pintle strokes (insertion process (upper) and extraction
process (lower))

Figure 13. Thrust on pintle movement

Figure 14. Hysteresis phenomena of cold gast

test

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American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics

Figure 15. Force on pintle and flow structures

IV. Conclusions
References
Periodicals
1
Vatistas, G. H., Lin, S., and Kwok, C. K., Reverse Flow Radius in Vortex Chambers, AIAA Journal, Vol. 24, No. 11, 1986,
pp. 1872, 1873.
2
Dornheim, M. A., Planetary Flight Surge Faces Budget Realities, Aviation Week and Space Technology, Vol. 145, No. 24, 9
Dec. 1996, pp. 44-46.
3
Terster, W., NASA Considers Switch to Delta 2, Space News, Vol. 8, No. 2, 13-19 Jan. 1997, pp., 1, 18.
All of the preceding information is required. The journal issue number (No. 11 in Ref. 1) is preferred, but the month (Nov.)
can be substituted if the issue number is not available. Use the complete date for daily and weekly publications. Transactions
follow the same style as other journals; if punctuation is necessary, use a colon to separate the transactions title from the journal
title.
Books
4
Peyret, R., and Taylor, T. D., Computational Methods in Fluid Flow, 2nd ed., Springer-Verlag, New York, 1983, Chaps. 7, 14.
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Oates, G. C. (ed.), Aerothermodynamics of Gas Turbine and Rocket Propulsion, AIAA Education Series, AIAA, New York,
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6
Volpe, R., Techniques for Collision Prevention, Impact Stability, and Force Control by Space Manipulators, Teleoperation
and Robotics in Space, edited by S. B. Skaar and C. F. Ruoff, Progress in Astronautics and Aeronautics, AIAA, Washington, DC,
1994, pp. 175-212.
Publisher, place, and date of publication are required for all books. No state or country is required for major cities: New York,
London, Moscow, etc. A differentiation must always be made between Cambridge, MA, and Cambridge, England, UK. Note that
series titles are in roman type.
Proceedings
7
Thompson, C. M., Spacecraft Thermal Control, Design, and Operation, AIAA Guidance, Navigation, and Control
Conference, CP849, Vol. 1, AIAA, Washington, DC, 1989, pp. 103-115
8
Chi, Y., (ed.), Fluid Mechanics Proceedings, SP-255, NASA, 1993.
9
Morris, J. D. Convective Heat Transfer in Radially Rotating Ducts, Proceedings of the Annual Heat Transfer Conference,
edited by B. Corbell, Vol. 1, Inst. Of Mechanical Engineering, New York, 1992, pp. 227-234.
At a minimum, proceedings must have the same information as other book references: paper (chapter) and volume title, name
and location of publisher, editor (if applicable), and pages or chapters cited. Do not include paper numbers in proceedings

12
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references, and delete the conference location so that it is not confused with the publishers location (which is mandatory, except
for government agencies). Frequently, CP or SP numbers (Conference Proceedings or Symposium Proceedings numbers) are also
given. These elements are not necessary, but when provided, their places should be as shown in the preceding examples.
Reports, Theses, and Individual Papers
10
Chapman, G. T., and Tobak, M., Nonlinear Problems in Flight Dynamics, NASA TM-85940, 1984.
11
Steger, J. L., Jr., Nietubicz, C. J., and Heavey, J. E., A General Curvilinear Grid Generation Program for Projectile
Configurations, U.S. Army Ballistic Research Lab., Rept. ARBRL-MR03142, Aberdeen Proving Ground, MD, Oct. 1981.
12
Tseng, K., Nonlinear Greens Function Method for Transonic Potential Flow, Ph.D. Dissertation, Aeronautics and
Astronautics Dept., Boston Univ., Cambridge, MA, 1983.
Government agency reports do not require locations. For reports such as NASA TM-85940, neither insert nor delete dashes;
leave them as provided by the author. Place of publication should be given, although it is not mandatory, for military and
company reports. Always include a city and state for universities. Papers need only the name of the sponsor; neither the sponsors
location nor the conference name and location are required. Do not confuse proceedings references with conference papers.
Electronic Publications
CD-ROM publications and regularly issued, dated electronic journals are permitted as references. Archived data sets also
may be referenced as long as the material is openly accessible and the repository is committed to archiving the data indefinitely.
References to electronic data available only from personal Web sites or commercial, academic, or government ones where there is
no commitment to archiving the data are not permitted (see Private Communications and Web sites).
13
Richard, J. C., and Fralick, G. C., Use of Drag Probe in Supersonic Flow, AIAA Meeting Papers on Disc [CD-ROM], Vol.
1, No. 2, AIAA, Reston, VA, 1996.
14
Atkins, C. P., and Scantelbury, J. D., The Activity Coefficient of Sodium Chloride in a Simulated Pore Solution
Environment, Journal of Corrosion Science and Engineering [online journal], Vol. 1, No. 1, Paper 2, URL:
http://www.cp/umist.ac.uk/JCSE/vol1/vol1.html [cited 13 April 1998].
15
Vickers, A., 10-110 mm/hr Hypodermic Gravity Design A, Rainfall Simulation Database [online database], URL:
http://www.geog.le.ac.uk/bgrg/lab.htm [cited 15 March 1998].

Always include the citation date for online references. Break Web site addresses after punctuation, and do not hyphenate at
line breaks.
Computer Software
16
TAPP, Thermochemical and Physical Properties, Software Package, Ver. 1.0, E. S. Microware, Hamilton, OH, 1992.
Include a version number and the company name and location of software packages.
Patents
Patents appear infrequently. Be sure to include the patent number and date.
17
Scherrer, R., Overholster, D., and Watson, K., Lockheed Corp., Burbank, CA, U.S. Patent Application for a Vehicle,
Docket No. P-01-1532, filed 11 Feb. 1979.
Private Communications and Web Sites
References to private communications and personal Web site addresses are generally not permitted. Private communications
can be defined as privately held unpublished letters or notes or conversations between an author and one or more individuals.
They may be cited as references in some case studies, but only with permission of the AIAA staff. Depending on the
circumstances, private communications and Web site addresses may be incorporated into the main text of a manuscript or may
appear in footnotes.
Unpublished Papers and Books
Unpublished works can be used as references as long as they are being considered for publication or can be located by the
reader (such as papers that are part of an archival collection). If a journal paper or a book is being considered for publication
choose the format that reflects the status of the work (depending upon whether it has been accepted for publication):
18

Doe, J., Title of Paper, Conference Name, Publishers name and location (submitted for publication)
Doe, J., Title of Paper, Name of Journal (to be published).
20
Doe, J., Title of Chapter, Name of Book, edited by Publishers name and location (to be published).
21
Doe, J., Title of Work, Name of Archive, Univ. (or organization) Name, City, State, Year (unpublished).
19

13
American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics

Unpublished works in an archive must include the name of the archive and the name and location of the university or other
organization where the archive is held. Also include any cataloging information that may be provided. Always query for an
update if a work is about to be published.

14
American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics