THRUST MEASUREMENT OF DIMETHYL

ETHER ARCJET THRUSTER

GUIDED BY

PRESENTED BY

Mr.K.S.SANTHOSH
Dept.of Mechanical Engg.,
CET,TVPM

PRAVEEN.H
S1-M.TECH(Prop.Engg.)
Dept.of Mechanical Engg.,
CET,TVPM

Department of Mechanical Engineering, CET

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INTRODUCTION
ARC JET THRUSTER
Thrust producing device by the thermal
expansion of propellent by the arc discharge.

Thrust force is in between chemical thrusters &

ion propulsion device.

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Continued
Operational temperature - 1000K-5000K
Maximum exhaust velocity is 20km/s,which is
higher than chemical thruster.
Established life time is greater than 800 hours of
operation.
Fuels used are :
Hydrogen
Hydrazine
Ammonia
Nitrogen
Efficiency of the system is around 55%
Applications:
Station keeping
Orbit transfer
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WHY DIMETHYL ETHER(DME) ?

Hydrogen produces high Sp.impulse but
cryogenic cooling required.
Hydrazine has high freezing point(1C)
-Temp.management required
- It is more toxic and reactive
-Iridium based catalyst is necessary
for gasification.
DME is the simplest ether compound.
Chemical formula: CH3-O-CH3
Boiling point
: -54C
Freezing Point
: -143C
Vapour pressure : 6 atm at 25C
Density
: of1.97Kg/m
3
Department
Mechanical Engineering,
CET

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Continued..
Easily gasify without the use of catalyst(only
need to adjust pressure & temperature)
Non toxic
Weak reactivity
Can be stored as liquid
Presence of oxygen is suit for combustion.
DME can successfully produce arc plasma.
Can be operated in 2 modes :
High voltage mode
Low voltage mode

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EXPERIMENTAL APPARATUS
DME ARCJET THRUSTER

Schematic diagram of the designed arcjet

thruster

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THRUSTER GEOMETRY AND EXPERIMENTAL

CONDITIONS
PARAMETERS

DIMENSIONS

Cathode diameter, mm

2.0

Constrictor diameter, mm

1.0

Constrictor length, mm

1.0

Divergent half angle of nozzle, deg.

15

Nozzle area ratio

100

Electrode gap, mm

1.0

Convergent half angle, deg.

45

Discharge current, A

35

Plenum chamber diameter, mm

6.0

Half angle of cathode tip, deg.

90

Minimum flow passage, mm

0.7

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OVERALL EXPERIMENT SYSTEM

DME arc jet thruster is tested in cubic vaccum chamber of

dimension 300300300 mm
Rotary vaccum pump evacuate the system at exhaust
velocity of 240L/min
A 300 mm long cylinder is attached inorder to protect the
system from hot plume.
Back pressure is 0.1-3kpa.
Constant current power source of 35A & 120V is connected
to thruster
Voltage is measured using Resistor type voltage divider &
that of current by Hall-effect current sensor
At starting a train of high voltage pulse is applied.
Thrust stand which is mechanically equivalent to vertical
pendulum with torsional spring.
Magnifying device for pendulum displacement.
LED displacement sensor with 10m resolution.

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Continued.
Feed tubes &electrical cables causes extra force
Calibration is done.
Calibration is done using 9 kinds of reference
force(Al weights)
Al weights
0.036 N
0.051 N
0.066 N
0.081 N
0.096 N
0.111 N
0.126 N
0.141 N
0.16 N
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Continued.
Pendulum displacement is noted corresponding
to reference force(calibration).
Data acquisition & processing system comprises
of :
IBM compatible digital computer.
Analog to digital converter.
Pressure sensors.
Flow measuring sensors.
Resistor type voltage dividers.
Hall-effect current sensors.
LED displacement sensors.
Parameters measured are :
1.Displacement

2.Voltage

4.Propellentant mass
flow rate

3.Current

5.Plenum chamber
pressure

Department of Mechanical Engineering, CET

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RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

PRELIMINARY THRUSTER TEST USING NITROGEN PROPELLANT

Time variations of discharge voltage, current, plenum pressure, and thrust using
nitrogen propellant at 60 mg/s.

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RESULTS & DISCUSSIONS

First test is carried out using Nitrogen gas.

Supply started at t=-6.3 s
Up to t=5 s,thruster remains at low voltage mode.
When t 5 s,thruster switched to high voltage
mode.
At low voltage mode plume is dark,thin & vert
long,was found outside the nozzle.
At high voltage mode plume is bright & found
outside the nozzle.
For mass flow 15 60mg/s,thruster produces
stable discharge voltage & thrust.
Thruster is good for the evaluation of DME
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TIME HISTORY OF DISCHARGE VOLTAGE, PLENUM PRESSURE,

AND THRUST USING DME PROPELLANT At 15 mg/s

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TIME HISTORY OF DISCHARGE VOLTAGE, PLENUM PRESSURE, AND

THRUST USING DME PROPELLANT
AT 30 mg/s

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TIME HISTORY OF DISCHARGE VOLTAGE, PLENUM PRESSURE,

AND THRUST USING DME PROPELLANT
AT 60 mg/s

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TIME HISTORY

DME supplied at t=-7.7s

Max.Thrust is 0.15N at 60mg/s
Plume is always located outside the nozzle.
Arc discharge is unstable.
Discharge voltage has ripple like fluctuations.
After t=70s,plenum chamber pressure increases
due to carbon contamination(97% C,3%
Tungsten).
This leads to chocking in constrictor.

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DISCHARGE VOLTAGE AND POWER

Variations of discharge voltage and current with mass flow rate at discharge
current was of 12 A
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DISCHARGE VOLTAGE&POWER
Voltage & power increases with massflow rate.
For DME voltage varies from 75-90v at high voltage
mode.
DME produces high power than nitrogen.
For DME :
Discharge power varies from430-1300W
Transition mass flow rate is 30mg/s
High vol.mode Above 30mg/s
Low voltage mode - below 30mg/s
At high vol.mode plume is found outside the nozzle.
At low vol.mode no plume found outside the
nozzle,bright spark with carbon particle is seen.
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VARIATIONS OF THRUST, SPECIFIC IMPULSE AND PLENUM CHAMBER

PRESSURE WITH MASS FLOW RATE.

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DEPENDENCE OF THRUST AND SPECIFIC IMPULSE ON SPECIFIC

POWER.

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THRUST & Sp.POWER

FOR
DME

Thrust

Specific
impulse

High
vol.Mode

0.078 0.15N

230 - 270s

Low
vol.Mode

0.014 0.021N

89 - 99s

Max.Thrust

0.15N

Max.Specific impulse

270s

Max.Thrust to power
ratio

120mN/kW at 60mg/s

Max.Discharge power

1300W

Max.Specific power

21MJ/Kg

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CONCLUSION
Discharge voltage increased with mass flow rate
for both DME and nitrogen.
Discharge voltage was always higher with DME
than with nitrogen
DME arc discharge was relatively unstable.
The DME arcjet thruster yielded both high and low
voltage modes. The thruster showed high voltage
mode at mass flow rates above 30 mg/s and lowvoltage mode below 30 mg/s.
Thrust using DME propellant increased steadily
with mass flow rate, and was higher than that
using nitrogen. maximum thrust of 0.15 N,
specific impulse of 270 s, and discharge power of
1300W at a DME flow rate of 60 mg/s.
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REFERENCES
[1] R.G. Jahn, Physics of Electric Propulsion, McGraw-Hill Book
Company, 1968.
[2] G.P. Sutton, O. Biblarz, Rocket Propulsion Elements, 7th
ed., John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 2001.
[3] A. Kakami, I. Ebara, J. Yokote, T. Tachibana, Application of
dimethyl ether to arcjet thruster as propellant, Vacuum 8
(2008) 7781.
[4] H. Kuninaka, M. Ishii, K. Kuriki, Experimental study on a
low-power direct current arcjet, Journal of Propulsion and
Power 2 (1986) 408413.
[5] T. Yamada, Y. Shimizu, K. Toki, K. Kuriki, Thrust
performance of a regeneratively cooled low-power arcjet
thruster, Journal of Propulsion and Power 8 (1992) 650654.
[6] RTAIwebsite, /http://www.rtai.orgS.
[7] www.elsevier.com/locate/actaastro
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THANK YOU

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