Electric solid propellants are advanced solid chemical rocket propellants controlled by electric current. An electric solid propellant may also be used in an electric propulsion system: specifically, an ablative pulsed plasma thruster. Previous experiments with the electric solid propellant known as high-performance electric propellant, or HIPEP, suggest its ablation processes are similar to the traditional propellant polytetrafluoroethylene ( C 2 F 4 ). Better understanding of the ablation and the resulting propulsion performance of HIPEP requires a model of its vapor composition, bulk plasma quantities, and thermodynamic properties. Such a model was developed and favorably compared with previous analogous model predictions found in the literature for C 2 F 4 . The electric solid propellant vapor composition was predicted in the temperature range of 500–40,000 K at 1 bar pressure. Low temperatures (less than 2000 K) were dominated by water ( H 2 O ), carbon dioxide ( CO 2 ), and molecular nitrogen ( N 2 ), with results at 700 K matching to within 10% of the previous combustion model predictions. At high temperatures (greater than 25,000 K), the vapor was strongly ionized and dominated by carbon ( C 2 + ), oxygen ( O 2 + ), nitrogen ( N 2 + ), and hydrogen ( H + ) ions. The calculated enthalpy and specific heat were higher for high performance electric propellant (HIPEP) vapor than C 2 F 4 , suggesting increased thermal losses could be inherent to ablation-controlled HIPEP discharges.


    Access

    Check access

    Check availability in my library

    Order at Subito €


    Export, share and cite



    Title :

    Thermodynamic Properties of Hydroxylammonium Nitrate-Based Electric Solid Propellant Plasma


    Contributors:

    Published in:

    Publication date :

    2020-07-01




    Type of media :

    Conference paper , Article (Journal)


    Type of material :

    Electronic Resource


    Language :

    English






    Electrolytic Combustion in the Polyvinyl Alcohol Plus Hydroxylammonium Nitrate Solid Propellant

    Baird, James K. / Lang, Joshua R. / Hiatt, Andrew T. et al. | AIAA | 2017


    Space Charge Limited Conduction in Polyvinyl Alcohol + Hydroxylammonium Nitrate Solid Propellant

    Baird, James K. / Huang, Sijay / Frederick, Robert A. | AIAA | 2020


    Hydroxylammonium Nitrate Species in a Monopropellant Electrospray Plume

    Wainwright, Mitchell J. / Rovey, Joshua L. / Miller, Shawn W. et al. | AIAA | 2019