Specific Impulse - General Considerations

General Considerations

Propellant is normally measured either in units of mass or weight. If mass is used, specific impulse is an impulse per unit mass, which dimensional analysis shows to be a unit of speed, and so specific impulses are often measured in meters per second and are often termed effective exhaust velocity. However, if propellant weight is used instead, an impulse divided by a force (weight) turns out to be a unit of time, and so specific impulses are measured in seconds. These two formulations are both widely used and differ from each other by a factor of g, the dimensioned constant of gravitational acceleration at the surface of the Earth.

Note that the gain of momentum of a rocket (including fuel) per unit time is not equal to the thrust, because the momentum that the fuel has while in the rocket has to be subtracted to the extent that it is used, i.e., the gain of momentum of a rocket per unit time is equal to the thrust, minus the velocity of the rocket multiplied by the amount of fuel used per unit time. (This gain of momentum of the rocket is the negative of the momentum of the exhaust gas.) See also change of impulse of a variable mass.

The higher the specific impulse, the less propellant is needed to produce a given thrust during a given time. In this regard a propellant is more efficient if the specific impulse is higher. This should not be confused with energy efficiency, which can even decrease as specific impulse increases, since propulsion systems that give high specific impulse require high energy to do so.

In addition it is important that thrust and specific impulse not be confused with one another. The specific impulse is a measure of the impulse per unit of propellant that is expended, while thrust is a measure of the momentary or peak force supplied by a particular engine. In many cases, propulsion systems with very high specific impulses—some ion thrusters reach 10,000 seconds—produce low thrusts.

When calculating specific impulse, only propellant that is carried with the vehicle before use is counted. For a chemical rocket the propellant mass therefore would include both fuel and oxidizer; for air-breathing engines only the mass of the fuel is counted, not the mass of air passing through the engine.