Preliminary Assessment of Hydrogen Peroxide Gel as an Oxidizer in a Catalyst Ignited Hybrid Thruster

In regard to propulsion system applications, the stability of liquid propellants in long-term storage is of increasing importance, and this had led to a greater interest in gelation technology. As part of a preliminary test to determine the feasibility of using a gel propellant in a rocket with a ca...

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Veröffentlicht in:International journal of aerospace engineering 2018-01, Vol.2018 (2018), p.1-14
Hauptverfasser: Shoaib, M. N., Yun, Yongtae, Jyoti, Botchu V. S., Huh, Jeongmoo, Kwon, Sejin
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Sprache:eng
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Zusammenfassung:In regard to propulsion system applications, the stability of liquid propellants in long-term storage is of increasing importance, and this had led to a greater interest in gelation technology. As part of a preliminary test to determine the feasibility of using a gel propellant in a rocket with a catalyst bed, a hybrid rocket with a catalyst reactor using a gel propellant as an oxidizer was tested for the first time in this study. Experiments were conducted with two different oxidizers: one with liquid phase hydrogen peroxide and the other with gel phase hydrogen peroxide, as well as high-density polyethylene as fuel for a 250 N class hybrid thruster performance test. The thruster was designed with the catalyst ignition system, and a catalyst was manufactured to be inserted into the catalyst reactor to facilitate oxidizer decomposition. While the test result with neat hydrogen peroxide indicated sufficient decomposition efficiency using a manganese dioxide/alumina catalyst and successful autoignition of the fuel via the decomposed product, gel hydrogen peroxide exhibited insufficient decomposition and there were difficulties in operating the thruster as a part of the catalyst was covered in the gelling agent. This preliminary study identifies the potential challenges of using a gel phase oxidizer in a catalyst ignited hybrid thruster and discusses the technical issues that should be addressed in regard to a gel propellant hybrid thruster design with a catalyst reactor.
ISSN:1687-5966
1687-5974
DOI:10.1155/2018/5630587