Design and Experiment of Thrusters Using Dimethyl Ether

We proposed new thrusters using Dimethyl ether (DME) as propellant: DME arcjet thruster and liquid propellant thruster using plasma assisted combustion. DME has a freezing point of -143ºC, a boiling point of -54ºC, and liquefies at 6atm under room temperature. Thus, DME can be stored as a liquid without cryogenic device. DME has little toxicity and is chemically stable. A DME arcjet thruster prototype operated in a discharge power range from 1000W to 1600W and a plenum chamber pressure reached 160kPa. We also designed a liquid propellant thruster prototype using DME plasma assisted combustion. The plasma successfully sustained the combustion of DME and Hydroxyl Ammonium Nitrate oxidizer. At a discharge power of approximately 3kW, the measurement of the thrust chamber pressure yielded a C* efficiency of 0.39 and an estimated specific impulse of 114s.