Arcjet thruster development
1996; American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics; Volume: 12; Issue: 6 Linguagem: Inglês
10.2514/3.24146
ISSN1533-3876
AutoresMonika Auweter‐Kurtz, B. Glocker, Thomas Golz, Helmut Kurtz, Ernst Messerschmid, Martin Riehle, Dieter Zube,
Tópico(s)Computational Fluid Dynamics and Aerodynamics
ResumoFor several years an intensive program has been in progress at the University of Stuttgart to investigate and develop thermal arcjets for propellants including ammonia, nitrogen-hydrogen mixtures simulating hydrazine, and hydrogen. Since hydrogen yields the highest specific impulse /sp and best efficiencies TJ, special emphasis was placed on this propellant. Arcjet power levels between 0.7-150 kW have been studied, including water- and radiation-cooled laboratory models and flight hardware. Results yielded a maximal attainable 7sp as a function of the design and power level and showed that increasing power increased /sp. Radiation-cooled arcjets show better 17 and 7sp than water-cooled devices, but raise technical problems because of the high temperatures of the thrusters, which require the use of special refractory materials. Proper arcjet optimization was done with a thorough thermal analysis, including the propellant flow. A further improvement of these thrusters was reached by regenerative cooling and by optimizing the constrictor contour. The constrictor flow is modeled by a three-channel model, the results of which are compared with experimental data. A new two-dimensional computational fluid dynamics (CFD) approach for hydrogen arcjet thrusters is presented. In 1996 a 0.7-kW ammonia arcjet is scheduled for a flight on the P3-D AMSAT satellite.
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