ETD

Archivio digitale delle tesi discusse presso l'Università di Pisa

Tesi etd-06182009-152905


Tipo di tesi
Tesi di laurea specialistica
Autore
VOLPI, MATTEO
URN
etd-06182009-152905
Titolo
Analisi dell'accensione di un propulsore bipropellente H2O2/C2H6
Dipartimento
INGEGNERIA
Corso di studi
INGEGNERIA AEROSPAZIALE
Relatori
Relatore Prof. D'Agostino, Luca
Relatore Prof. Paganucci, Fabrizio
Relatore Ing. Torre, Lucio
Relatore Ing. Pasini, Angelo
Parole chiave
  • propellenti verdi
  • stabilità di fiamma
  • dump-combustor
  • miscelazione
  • accensione
  • FVP
  • autoaccensione
Data inizio appello
14/07/2009
Consultabilità
Completa
Riassunto
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.
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