• accensione
• autoaccensione
• dump-combustor
• FVP
• miscelazione
• propellenti verdi
• stabilità di fiamma

In recent times the use of non-toxic (or “green”) propellants has been reconsidered for application to space propulsion. In particular, Hydrogen peroxide has long been used both in monopropellant and bipropellant rocket engines. When compared with hydrazine, its main advantages include significantly lower toxicity and cost, higher safety and reduced environmental impact. Hydrogen peroxide can be employed in small bipropellant rocket thrusters in combination with a Fuel Vapor Pressurized (FVP) feed system, where non-hypergolic propellant combinations are pressurized by the fuel vapor, often in the same tank divided by a flexible membrane. Hydrogen peroxide from the storage tank is decomposed in a catalytic bed before mixing and reacting with the fuel in the downstream combustion chamber. Depending on the choice of fuel, the temperature of the bipropellant mixture in the combustion chamber can be sufficiently high for self-ignition to occur.
Alta S.p.A recently developed and tested an FVP thruster prototype operating with hydrogen peroxide and ethane. Successful operation of the fuel vapor pressurization and propellant feed system has been demonstrated. However, ethane did not ignited spontaneously in the combustion chamber, nor stable ignition could be attained using a glow plug. The main purpose of the present thesis consisted in investigating the reasons of this malfunction and suggesting possible solutions.