Plasma catalytic monopropellant decomposition
- Paper number
IAC-06-C4.P.1.01
- Author
Mr. Junichiro Aoyagi, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan
- Coauthor
Mr. Yuki Kotake, University of Tokyo, Japan
- Coauthor
Prof. Haruki Takegahara, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan
- Coauthor
Dr. Kyoichi Kuriki, Tokyo Institute of Technology, Japan
- Year
2006
- Abstract
Electrical discharge plasma was applied in order to decompose monopropellant, which is hydrazine or “green propellant” such as HAN-based one or hydrogen peroxide. It has been known that electrical discharge plasma has high activation energy enough to induce various chemical reactions. Although conventional solid catalyst is employed to the all monopropellant thruster system so far, it is frequently damaged by the vibration at launch or the long-term operation of the thruster. Plasma catalytic thruster enables the solid catalyst bed remove from the thruster system and will be higher reliability and longer lifetime. In our previous study, it was confirmed that hydrazine was decomposed by pulsed or stationary AC discharge plasma. Moreover, the activity of the plasma is expected to affect other dissociation reactions of monopropellant. In this paper, the effectiveness of the electrical discharge plasma for dissociating monopropellant was evaluated. New experimental equipment was designed and constructed in our university. This equipment has regulated propellant feed system and a reaction chamber in which monopropellant will contact with discharge plasma. At first hydrogen peroxide with several concentrations was employed as a propellant. When stationary AC discharge plasma was sustained with a few 10 W and the liquid propellant was injected to the reaction chamber, the pressure and the temperature were measured to evaluate whether the propellant was decomposed. Since electrical discharge energy was much lower than that the activation energy for decomposing hydrogen peroxide, it was considered that the discharge plasma induced the exothermic reaction.
- Abstract document