The propulsive efficiency of a rocket engine is defined as the ratio of the kinetic energy of the exhaust gases to the thermal energy released by the propellant. For a nuclear thermal rocket engine, this efficiency is particularly relevant, as it involves the conversion of thermal energy from a nuclear reactor into kinetic energy of the exhaust gases.
The propulsive efficiency is a crucial parameter in evaluating the performance of a rocket engine, indicating how well it converts propellant energy into useful thrust. Practical rocket engines often have propulsive efficiencies less than 100% due to factors like incomplete combustion, heat losses, and other inefficiencies in the propulsion system.
The propulsive efficiency () is defined by the following formula:
where,
- is the propulsive efficiency,
- is the thrust produced by the rocket engine,
- is the effective exhaust velocity of the rocket,
- ṁ is the mass flow rate of the propellants,
- is the specific impulse of the rocket engine,
- g0 is the acceleration due to gravity (approximately 9.81 m/s²).