2012 Fiscal Year Final Research Report
Application of dimethyl ether to arcjet thruster and realizing dual mode operation
| Project/Area Number |
22360356
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| Research Category |
Grant-in-Aid for Scientific Research (B)
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| Allocation Type | Single-year Grants |
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| Section | 一般 |
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| Research Field |
Aerospace engineering
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| Research Institution | Kyushu Institute of Technology |
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Principal Investigator |
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| Co-Investigator(Kenkyū-buntansha) |
SHIMIZU Hiroki 九州工業大学, 大学院・工学研究院, 准教授 (50323043)
KAKAMI Akira 宮崎大学, 工学教育研究部, 准教授 (80415653)
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| Project Period (FY) |
2010 – 2012
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| Keywords | 航空宇宙工学 / ロケット / ジメチルエーテル / 電熱推進機 |
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| Research Abstract |
In this study, we proposed a dimethyl ether (DME) arcjet thruster and throttleable solid-propellant thrust-augmentation module for simplifying the propulsion system and realizing wide range variable thrust. The thrust-augmentation module has a combustion-controllable solid propellant which sustains combustion only while an external heat was supplied to its burning surface. Thrust measurement for prototyped arcjet thruster yielded a specific impulse of 330 s and a thruster efficiency of 0.14 at a discharge power of 2600 W. Burning rate of combustion controllable solid propellant under external heating was evaluated using a semiconductor laser. With some solid propellants, combustion was successfully started and interrupted by laser irradiation. Burning measurement yielded pressure exponents regime from 0.4 and 0.6. Theoretically, if pressure exponents are lower than 1.0, a solid propellant thruster sustains a stable thrust. From the results, the thrust-augmentation module with combustion controllable propellants yields stable thrusts.
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