Fabrication of Catalyst-Insertion-Type Microelectromechanical Systems Monopropellant Thruster

Lee, Jeongsub; Kim, Sukyum; Kwon, Sejin

doi:10.2514/1.b34287

Cited by 12 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…However, the internal surface area of the thrust chamber was not adequate to provide sufficient surface area. The insertion of a porous catalyst support loaded with catalyst proved effective and achieved high decomposition efficiency [35]. The catalyst bed of a monopropellant microthruster should withstand high propellant flow rate and high temperature while maintaining the high specific surface area [38].…”

Section: Catalyst Fabricationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Previous studies on micro scale thrusters conserved heat energy using ceramics [26,31,[47][48][49][50] and glasses. We selected photosensitive glass that has been proved to be excellent in reacting flow MEMS devices [35,[51][52][53]. The thermal conductivity of glass is less than one hundredth of that of silicon.…”

Section: Mems Process For Thruster Fabricationmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Considering all the options, we concluded monopropellant is the appropriate choice for a MEMS propulsion system, although monopropellant has a specific impulse less than bipropellant. Past investigations on monopropellant microthrusters reported limited success [29][30][31][32][33][34][35][36].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Xupeng et al [33] reported a water solution of ferrous chloride, FeCl 2 , as the decomposition catalyst of hydrogen peroxide. Lee et al [35] used platinum coated gamma alumina pellets which were inserted into the thrust chamber fabricated from thermal bonding of glass wafers. Although the monopropellant decomposed efficiently, the chamber pressure fluctuated severely.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Design, fabrication and thrust measurement of a micro liquid monopropellant thruster

Huh

Kwon

2014

J. Micromech. Microeng.

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A liquid monopropellant MEMS thruster was designed, fabricated and tested. For application on a nanosatellite for orbit control, a liquid propellant MEMS thruster delivers better performance than a solid thruster. Two issues must be addressed for a liquid monopropellant MEMS thruster: high energy content of the monopropellant to overcome the excessive heat loss associated with the small scale of the thruster, and repeatability of generated thrust force. The present study proposed blending 90 wt% hydrogen peroxide with ethanol at an oxidizer to fuel ratio of 30 to enhance the energy content of the propellant. The thruster structure was constructed using glass layers that were individually patterned by wet etching. The decomposition catalyst was separately prepared by wet impregnation of the active material, Pt, on the gamma alumina pellets and inserted into the thrust chamber before the UV bonding process of the glass layers. The firing test of the assembled MEMS thruster was conducted and thrust was measured both with ethanol blended hydrogen peroxide and pure hydrogen peroxide as a reference monopropellant. The measured thrusts were approximately 30 mN for both 1.7 ml min−1 flow rate of blended hydrogen peroxide and 2.0 ml min−1 flow rate of pure hydrogen peroxide. The measured thrust for 1.7 ml min−1 pure hydrogen peroxide was approximately 24 mN. The measured thrust was 40% less than the design thrust for both monopropellants. The uncertainty of the thrust was less with blended monopropellant than with pure hydrogen peroxide.

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Section: Catalyst Fabricationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Mems Process For Thruster Fabricationmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Design, fabrication and thrust measurement of a micro liquid monopropellant thruster

Huh

Kwon

2014

J. Micromech. Microeng.

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“…The value of L 1 ∕D 1 was less than 2 because the response time increased, and the chamber instability can be induced as this ratio increases. The catalyst used for hydrogen peroxide decomposition is platinum/γ-type bimodal alumina, which has already been used in a lot of research [4][5][6]. The platinum was loaded on the catalyst support using a previously established impregnation method [6].…”

Section: Thruster For Experimentsmentioning

confidence: 99%