Affiliation:
1. Space Propulsion Laboratory (SPLab), Department of Aerospace Science and Technology (DAER), Politecnico di Milano, 20156 Milano, Italy
Abstract
The object of this work is to study the ignition performances of promising catalytically promoted amino-based green fuels to be used in combination with rocket-grade hydrogen peroxide. The main hypergolic parameter, the ignition delay time, was experimentally determined with an automated drop test setup. Additionally, the kinematic viscosity was experimentally measured, while the CEA2 software was used to determine the ideal rocket performances of the propellants. Three inorganic copper salts were selected as catalysts to be used in combination with monoethanolamine in concentrations ranging from 0.5 wt% to 20 wt%. Then, N,N-dimethylethylenediamine was introduced as part of a blend with monoethanolamine to target the high viscosity and low gravimetric specific impulse of the fuel for the pure monoethanolamine case. Due to the reduced monoethanolamine and low additive content, some formulations were observed to be characterized by gravimetric specific impulse higher than 320 s, and kinematic viscosity lower than 5 cSt while retaining ignition delay times shorter than 30 ms with 98 wt% HTP. Finally, the addition of ethanol to the blend was preliminarily investigated to improve the additive solubility. The effects on the ignition delay time were found to depend on the concentration ratio of the two amines.
Funder
European Union—Next Generation EU
Reference31 articles.
1. Florczuk, W., and Rarata, G.P. (2017, January 10–12). Performance evaluation of the hypergolic green propellants based on the HTP for a future next generation spacecrafts. Proceedings of the 53rd AIAA/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference, Atlanta, GA, USA.
2. Blevins, D., and Hohmann, C. (October, January 29). Description of the space shuttle reaction control system. Proceedings of the 11th Propulsion Conference, Anaheim, CA, USA.
3. Dreyer, L. (2009, January 7–14). Latest developments on SpaceX’s Falcon 1 and Falcon 9 launch vehicles and Dragon spacecraft. Proceedings of the IEEE Aerospace Conference, Big Sky, MT, USA.
4. Exploring the possibilities of energetic ionic liquids as non-toxic hypergolic bipropellants in liquid rocket engines;Sam;J. Mol. Liq.,2022
5. (2023, October 04). Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA): Permissible Exposure Limits—Annotated Tables, Available online: https://www.osha.gov/annotated-pels/table-z-1.