The present paper illustrates a comprehensive experimental campaign carried out in order to assess the capability of four especially-developed catalytic beds to decompose hydrogen peroxide under operational conditions representative of typical application to small monopropellant rocket engines, and to characterize the resulting performance of the thruster. The catalytic beds have been integrated in a reconfigurable thruster prototype and tested in ALTA’s Green Propellant Rocket Test Facility. All beds have shown high decomposition and propulsive efficiencies, well in excess of 90%. In particular, two catalytic beds – indicated as LR-III-106 and CZ-11-600 – have been respectively able to decompose up to 13 and 11 kg of 90% hydrogen peroxide, equivalent to 2500 and 2000 s of thruster continuous operation, exhibiting C-Star efficiencies higher than 95%. The experimental results have also indicated two main sources of catalyst degradation. In low-porosity catalysts the decay o...
Endurance Tests on Different Catalytic Beds for H2O2 Monopropellant Thrusters
PASINI, ANGELO;D'AGOSTINO, LUCA
2009-01-01
Abstract
The present paper illustrates a comprehensive experimental campaign carried out in order to assess the capability of four especially-developed catalytic beds to decompose hydrogen peroxide under operational conditions representative of typical application to small monopropellant rocket engines, and to characterize the resulting performance of the thruster. The catalytic beds have been integrated in a reconfigurable thruster prototype and tested in ALTA’s Green Propellant Rocket Test Facility. All beds have shown high decomposition and propulsive efficiencies, well in excess of 90%. In particular, two catalytic beds – indicated as LR-III-106 and CZ-11-600 – have been respectively able to decompose up to 13 and 11 kg of 90% hydrogen peroxide, equivalent to 2500 and 2000 s of thruster continuous operation, exhibiting C-Star efficiencies higher than 95%. The experimental results have also indicated two main sources of catalyst degradation. In low-porosity catalysts the decay o...I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
