[AR] Re: Volumetric ratio

  • From: Henry Spencer <hspencer@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: Arocket List <arocket@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • Date: Thu, 30 May 2019 13:19:07 -0400 (EDT)

On Thu, 30 May 2019, David Summers wrote:

To throw this out there, why this scaling difference matters is primarily
insulation. If you are using cryogenic propellants, larger tanks are indeed
better than small ones - small liquid hydrogen would be very hard!

Yes, there are any number of practical complications that can mess up the simple pressure-vessel model. Another one is that in a vehicle that hits substantial accelerations, hydrostatic head is unimportant for small tanks but can add significantly to the pressure loads at the bottom of a big one, thus favoring smaller (or at least shorter) tanks. And of course, any multi-tank solution adds overhead for structure to tie them together and plumbing to interconnect them.

Henry

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