• Transactions of the Korean Society of Mechanical Engineers B
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.868-874
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• 2002

A high-impulse, low-power, digital microthruster has been developed using low-boiling-temperature liquid propellant with high-viscosity fluid plug. The viscous fiction force of the fluid plug increases the blast pressure and the low-boiling-temperature liquid propellant is intended to reduce input power consumption. The three-layer microthruster has been fabricated by surface micromachining as well as bulk micromachining in the size of 7$\times$13$\times$1.5㎣. A digital output impulse bit of 6.4$\times$10$^{-8}$ Nsec has been obtained from the fabricated microthruster using perfluoro normal hexane (FC72) propellant and oil plug, resulting in about ten times increase of the impulse bit using one hundredth electrical input energy compared to the conventional multiple-shot microthruster.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2001.06c
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• pp.59-63
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• 2001

A high-impulse, low-power, continuous-shot microthruster has been developed using low boiling temperature liquid-propellant with high viscous fluid-plug. The viscous friction force of the fluid-plug increases the blast pressure and the low boiling temperature liquid-propellant is intended to reduce input power consumption. The three-layer microthruster has been fabricated by surface micromachining as well as bulk micromachining in the size of $7{\times}13{\times}1.5mm^{3}$. A continuous output impulse bit of $6.4{\times}10^{-8}N{\cdot}sec$ has been obtained from the fabricated microthruster using perfluoro normal hexane (FC72) propellant and oil plug, resulting in about ten times increase of the impulse bit using one hundredth electrical input energy compared to the conventional continuous microthruster.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2004.03a
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• pp.605-610
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• 2004

Solid propellants allow thrusters to be light-weight, com-pact and robust because they require neither tank nor valve, Moreover, the solid propellant will not leak, spill or slosh. Consequently, the solid propellant thruster is one of the potential candidates for the microthruster. On the other hand, the control of the solid propellant combustion is difficult, since the conventional solid propellant continues to bum until all the stored propellant is consumed. Although particular devices like thrust reverser were designed to control the combustion, these devices were rarely used in the practical rocket motors. These devices rise thruster weight as well as complicate the thruster operation. In this study, a solid propellant microthruster using laser sustained combustion was designed in order to develop a high-efficiency microthruster overcoming the previously-mentioned difficulty. This designed thruster has semiconductor lasers and non-self-combustible solid propellants in addition to the conventional solid propellant thruster. In this designed thruster, the semiconductor laser controls the combustion of the non-self-combustible solid propellant. In order to demonstrate that the solid propellant combustion is controllable with laser, some non-self-combustible solid propellants were irradiated with the laser at a back-pressure of about 1㎪. A 40-W class Neodymium Yttrium Aluminum Garnet (ND:YAG) laser was used as a tentative alternate to the semiconductor laser. This experiment has shown that the solid propellant combustion was controllable with 10- W class laser irradiation.

• Advances in aircraft and spacecraft science
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• v.4 no.1
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• pp.21-35
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• 2017

Hydrogen peroxide is being considered as a monopropellant in micropropulsion systems for the next generation of miniaturized satellites ('nanosats') due to its high energy density, modest specific impulse and green characteristics. Efforts at the University of Vermont have focused on the development of a MEMS-based microthruster that uses a novel slug flow monopropellant injection scheme to generate thrust and impulse-bits commensurate with the intended micropropulsion application. The present study is a computational effort to investigate the initial decomposition of the monopropellant as it enters the catalytic chamber, and to compare the impact of the monopropellant injection scheme on decomposition performance. Two-dimensional numerical studies of the monopropellant in microchannel geometries have been developed and used to characterize the performance of the monopropellant before vaporization occurs. The results of these studies show that monopropellant in the lamellar flow regime, which lacks a non-diffusive mixing mechanism, does not decompose at a rate that is suitable for the microthruster dimensions. In contrast, monopropellant in the slug flow regime decomposes 57% faster than lamellar flow for a given length, indicating that the monopropellant injection scheme has potential benefits for the performance of the microthruster.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2006.11a
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• pp.30-33
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• 2006

Onset voltage plays a crucial role in the design of a spray microthruster. This paper presents an analytical electrostatic model to predict the behavior of onset voltage in an array of emitters. The basic idea of this method is to superimpose the electric potentials obtained from each individual emitter in an array of emitters. The results show that if one emitter operates and the other neighboring emitters are dry, the potential required for cone-jet spraying generally increases as the emitter spacing decreases (due to electrical shielding). However at very close spacing the potential can decrease. If all emitters operate at the same time, the phenomenon that even at very close spacing the onset voltage required for cone-jet spraying increases merely as the emitter spacing decreases.

• Bulletin of the Korean Space Science Society
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• 2005.10a
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• pp.61-61
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• 2005

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2005.11a
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• pp.266-271
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• 2005

An experimental investigation of a microthruster using hydrogen peroxide as a monopropellant is described. The study comprises of preparation method of silver as a catalyst and performance evaluation of a catalytic reaction chamber. Silver was reduced in $H_2$ environment at $500^{\circ}C$. The catalytic reaction chamber was tested to determine the optimum configuration of the catalyst bed. The catalyst bed was made of a glass wafer substrate sputtered with silver and had a length of 20 mm. The conversion rate was measured with various residence time, catalyst bed temperature, catalytic coated area.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.9 no.4
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• pp.1-8
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• 2005

An experimental investigation of a microthruster that uses hydrogen peroxide as a monopropellant is described. The study comprises of preparation method of silver as a catalyst and performance evaluation of a mesoscale reactor. Reduction of silver in $H_2\;at\;500^{\circ}C$ resulted in the best reactivity of all the treatment method tested. A mesoscale reactor was built to find the optimum configuration for full decomposition of propellant. The catalyst bed was made of a glass wafer substrate sputtered with silver and had a length of 20 mm. We measured the conversion rate with varying feed rate of $H_2O_2$ and preheating temperature. With the feed rate of $H_2O_2$, the space time within the reactor varies as well. For the bed length of 20 mm, space time more than 480 s was required for full conversion.

• Journal of Aerospace System Engineering
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• v.9 no.2
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• pp.13-18
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• 2015

Micro planar type liquid propellant thruster was fabricated by MEMS manufacturing process for micro/nano satellites applications. 90 wt.% hydrogen peroxide was used as propellant and for propellant decomposition, Pt/Al2O3 was used as catalyst. Micro thruster structure was made by 5 photosensitive glasses patterned with thruster component profiles. Objective thrust was 50 mN and required hydrogen peroxide mass flow was 2.1 ml/min, which was supplied by syringe pump and teflon tube in experimental test. Performance test said that average steady thrust was approximately 30 mN, around 60% of objective thrust, and transient time was about 5 sec. It is estimated that extended response time was due to high thermal energy loss of micro scale thruster and low enthalpy input by propellant mass flow.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2007.04a
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• pp.45-48
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• 2007

Conventional force sensors such as piezoelectric sensor has limitations for measuring micro/nano-scale thrust. In this study we developed nano-scale measurement system using laser displacement sensor and cantilever. And electrospray microthruster was fabricated by using stainless capillary and extraction electrode, to generate nano-scale thrust. The measurement system can measure the around 90 nN thrust from this thruster. In addition, we designed and fabricated electrospray micro thruster based on PMMA(Polymethyl methacrylate), which has a nozzle protruded from the substrate.