2016.B.3.3. Establishment of 2-D integrated adiabatic combustion model of solid propellant used for solid propellant microthrusters

Author(s)

Teng Li (1)
Shuzhou Fang (1)
Haixu Yu (1)
Hongpeng Ma (1)

Beijing Institute of Technology, China

Session

B.3

Keywords

Solid propellant microthruster, Condensed phase reaction, Gas phase reaction, Flame structure, Integrated simulation, Microscale combustion model

Abstract

The solid propellant microthruster(SPM) is a potential propulsion device for cubesats. The SPM has advantages over other micro propulsion techniques in terms of simpler structure without moving parts, reliability and propellant stability, which makes it proper for space mission application when assembled in the form of arrays to mitigate its disadvantage of one-shot use. The solid propellant is the fuel of an SPM, of which the 2-D and 3-D microscale combustion model’s establishment is one the issues to be solved because of its complicated gas phase and condensed phase chemical reactions.

To solve the issue of integrated simulation on SPM’s performance, the 1-D adiabatic combustion model of double base propellant proposed by Taeseong Roh, which takes into consideration 2 condensed phase reactions and 5 gas phase reactions is extended to 2-D condition, based on the computational software FLUENT and its re-development tool UDF. The burning rate, temperature over the burning face and species mass fraction are derived according to properties near and at the burning surface of the solid propellant. The simulation is performed for 4 different pressure values in the micro combustion chamber of SPMs. Results show varied flame structures of different pressure values and the effect of gas viscosity on solid propellant’s burning rate, which is higher at the wall than at the centre line of the micro combustion chamber. The model realized integrated simulation of solid propellant microscale combustion model taking into consideration multi-step condensed phase reactions in 2-D condition and the method can be applied to the simulation of other solid propellants’ microscale combustion models.