Numerical analysis of hydrogen peroxide monopropellant thruster

Abstract

Numerical analysis can be used to optimise design of the green propulsion thruster with competitive costs compared to optimisation process through experiments. Furthermore, it could be used to predict engine performance and provide information of the combustion process that can be used to identify the cause of the experimental phenomenon. The work presented in this study was performed to simulate the fluid flow in hydrogen peroxide monopropellant thruster. A 50 Newton class thruster is designed to utilised high grade hydrogen peroxide (90 wt%). Two-dimensional model has been developed with injection diameter of 1.3 mm and chamber diameter of 17 mm. The flow is modelled as single-phase; catalyst was modelled as porous medium, and operates at different injection pressures, while k-ε turbulence model was used. Pressure and temperature distributions were generated where highest temperature recorded is 1,128 K and pressure loss of 2,000 kPa. Numerical analysis helped in understanding the effects of chamber configurations to the flow fields inside the thruster.