Optimum performance of MHD-augumented chemical rocket thrusters for space propulsion applications
- Univ. of Tennessee Space Institute, Tullahoma, TN (United States)
The use of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) acceleration of a chemical rocket exhaust stream, to augment the thrust of small, space-propulsion type chemical thrusters was examined, with the purpose of identifying {open_quotes}optimum{close_quotes} performance. Optimum performance is defined herein as the highest spacecraft acceleration levels with concurrent highest specific impulse, that the hybrid propulsion system can generate, given a fixed mass flow of propellant and fixed chamber pressure (150 psia). The exhaust nozzle-MHD channel selected was of the simplest kind, a three-segmented Faraday generator, for simplicity in design, manufacture, and power control circuit assembly. The channel expanded in only one plane or direction, the plane intersecting the electrodes. The distance between the side walls was fixed. Three different fuel oxidizer combinations were investigated: H{sub 2} - O{sub 2}, fuel oil - O{sub 2}, and hydrazine - nitrogen tetroxide. These represent the spectrum of typical liquid rocket propellants. The fraction of the propellant flow representing potassium, as K{sub 2}CO{sub 3}, was kept constant at 1/2 percent of the total propellant flow. The results of the study verify that the MHD-augmented chemical thruster will be an important propulsion system option for space missions requiring accelerations of the order of milli-gravities with specific impulses of the order of 4,000 seconds. The system study showed that a 3-segmented, diverging Faraday channel with about a 2{degrees} divergence angle, enclosed by a 4 Tesla magnet, was capable of providing exhaust gas exit velocities of the order of 40000 m/s for all three propellant combinations. Hence, a hybrid propulsion system of the type identified here is capable of providing thrusts of the order of 400 Newtons, spacecraft accelerations of the order 2 milli-gravities, with electric power requirements of about 2.4 megawatts, based on propellant total mass flow rates of about 10 grams per second.
- OSTI ID:
- 254666
- Report Number(s):
- CONF-950697--
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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