[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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