• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.3 no.1
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• pp.72-77
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• 1999

The mono-hydrazine thrusters which have been selected for satellite auxilliarly propulsion system since 1960s were koreanized for KOMPSAT attitude control. In this paper, design and manufacturing, test of the mono-hydrazine thruster were briefly reviewed with KOMPSAT attitude control thrusters and the key technology to be developed in the future for various small thrusters of launch vehicle, satellite and guidance missile were proposed.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.45 no.4
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• pp.300-309
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• 2017

A spacecraft obtains a reaction momentum required for an orbit correction and an attitude control by exhausting a combustion gas through a small thruster in space. If the exhaust plume collides with spacecraft surfaces, it is very important to predict the exhaust plume behavior of the thruster when designing a satellite, because a generated disturbance force/torque, a heat load and a surface contamination can yield a life shortening and a reduction of the spacecraft function. The purpose of the present study is to ensure the core technology required for the spacecraft design by analyzing numerically the exhaust gas behavior of the 10 N class bipropellant thruster for an attitude control of the spacecraft. To do this, calculation results of chemical equilibrium reaction between a MMH for fuel and a NTO for oxidizer, and continuum region of the nozzle inside are implemented as inlet conditions of the DSMC method for the exhaust plume analysis. From these results, it is possible to predict a nonequilibrium expansion such as a species separation and a backflow in the vicinity of the bipropellant thruster nozzle.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.22 no.3
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• pp.81-89
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• 2018

In this study, the operating characteristics of a small-scale pulse detonation engine (PDE) were investigated experimentally for application as a small thruster and an igniter. The PDE was constructed using commercial gas tubes with an inner diameter of 4.22 mm. The operating and detonation propagation characteristics of the PDE were investigated over the ranges of equivalence ratios and operating frequencies. Measured detonation speed was close to 10% of the theoretical CJ values at 1 Hz and 5 Hz conditions. However, unstable propagation characteristics were shown at 20 Hz and lean conditions, where the velocity deficit was increased by 20~62%.

• Journal of computational fluids engineering
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.112-119
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• 2016

NEXTSat-1 is the next-generation small-size artificial satellite system planed by the Satellite Technology Research Center(SatTReC) in Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology(KAIST). For the control of attitude and transition of the orbit, the system has adopted a RHM(Resisto-jet Head Module), which has a very simple geometry with a reasonable efficiency. An axisymmetric model is devised with two coil-resistance heaters using xenon(Xe) gas, and the minimum required specific impulse is 60 seconds under the thrust more than 30 milli-Newton. To design the module, seven basic parameters should be decided: the nozzle shape, the power distribution of heater, the pressure drop of filter, the diameter of nozzle throat, the slant length and the angle of nozzle, and the size of reservoir, etc. After quasi one-dimensional analysis, a theoretical value of specific impulse is calculated, and the optima of parameters are found out from the baseline with a series of multi-physical numerical simulations based on the compressible Navier-Stokes equations for gas and the heat conduction energy equation for solid. A commercial code, COMSOL Multiphysics is used for the computation with a FEM (finite element method) based numerical scheme. The final values of design parameters indicate 5.8% better performance than those of baseline design after the verification with all the tuned parameters. The present method should be effective to reduce the time cost of trial and error in the development of RHM, the thruster of NEXTSat-1.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2011.11a
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• pp.163-170
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• 2011

Applicability of regenerative cooling in 2,500 N-class bipropellant thruster using hydrogen peroxide and kerosene was considered for improvement performance and application in various missions. Calculation was performed by one dimensional approach using hydrogen peroxide as a coolant. In designed regenerative cooling thruster, heat flux at nozzle throat was estimated at 18 ~ 20 $MW/m^2$. Designed cooling channel width and height were 2.5 mm and 0.5 mm, respectively. Based on designed cooling channel configuration, flat plate model was manufactured and tested for estimation of pressure drop in cooling channel, and CFD analysis was compared with the test result. The maximum error between CFD analysis and experimental result was approximately 13% and average error was approximately 5%.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.17 no.1
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• pp.1-8
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• 2013

A liquid-monopropellant hydrazine thruster has several outstanding advantages such as relatively-simple structure, long/stable propellant storability, clean exhaust products, and so on. Therefore hydrazine thruster has such a wide application as orbit and attitude control system (ACS) for space vehicles. A hydrazine thruster with the medium-level thrust to be used in the ACS of space launch vehicles (SLV) has been developed, and its ground firing test result is presented in terms of thrust, impulse bit, temperature, and chamber pressure. It is verified through the performance test that the response and repeatability of thrust are very excellent, and the thrust efficiencies compared to its ideal requirement are larger than 93%.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.39 no.4
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• pp.341-347
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• 2011

This work studies the performance of an injector for a monopropellant thruster, comparing a conventional and new injector types. The conventional injector consists of 8 nozzles on a convex surface allowing the jet to be diverged. The new injector, we suggested, is an impinging type with nozzle holes on a concave surface. The fuel streams through the nozzle holes are collide at a point on an axial direction, which allow to atomize the liquid streams and to spray more uniformly along circular direction. The performance of the injectors is investigated by using computational fluid dynamics, particle image velocimetry and high speed camera visualization.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.21 no.3
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• pp.1-9
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• 2017

Numerical computations are performed to investigate the effect of pintle stroke on the performance of an internal pintle thruster. Results show that the thrust control ratio was less than 2% and the aerodynamic load ratio was 22% as the pintle stroke increased. The flow past the nozzle throat rapidly expanding because of the shape of the pintle, and a shock wave was generated. Particularly, at the pintle stroke distance of 4 and 5 mm, the shock wave hit the wall of the nozzle, results in peeling bubbles. Depending on the altitude, the thrust increased and the aerodynamic load decreased, but the difference was as small as 1.5%. In the presence of the bore, the reduction of the pintle tip area resulted in a decrease in aerodynamic load.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.65-72
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• 2021

700 W class laboratory model Hall thruster, which can be used for the orbit control or station keeping of small satellites, was developed. The size of the discharge channel was determined using a scaling law, and the magnetic field was designed to be symmetric with respect to the midline of the discharge channel and to be maximized outside the discharge channel. Base pressure of a vacuum chamber was maintained below 2.0×10^-5 Torr during experiments, and the thrust was measured by a thrust stand. The anode flow rate and coil current were varied with the fixed anode voltage at 300 V. Under the operation condition at 2.36 mg/s anode flow rate and 2.4 A coil current, performance was optimized as 38 mN thrust, 1,540 s total specific impulse, and 50 % anode efficiency at 620 W anode power.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.36-52
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• 2021

As the application of nano-satellites constellation increases worldwide in the wake of New Space era, there is growing demand for the development of thrusters for precise attitude and orbit control of small satellites. Field Emission Electric Propulsion(FEEP) thruster uses a liquid metal as a propellant and accelerates the ionized liquid metal through a strong electric field at the tip of the metal surface. FEEP thruster technology is suitable for nano-satellites which require various missions for attitude and orbit control, because it provides thrust ranging from 1 µN to 1 mN with high specific impulse up to about 10,000 s and can be miniaturized due to its simple structure. In this paper, the basics of FEEP thrusters are introduced, then the current status of research and development of FEEP thrusters are presented.