• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2011.04a
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• pp.153-156
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• 2011

Steady state experiment was carried out for modulatable thruster applications, with four different pintles. Results show that thrust can be modulated by changing nozzle throat area with pintle penetration. However, effect of pintle shape on the thruster performance is yet to be concluded.

• Aerospace Engineering and Technology
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• v.8 no.1
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• pp.144-153
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• 2009

To study the plume effects in the rarefied region, the Direct Simulation Monte Carlo(DSMC) method is usually adopted because the plume field usually contains the entire range of flow regime from the near-continuum in the vicinity of nozzle exit through transitional state to free molecular at far field region from the nozzle. The objective of this study is to investigate the behaviors of a small monopropellant thruster plume in the rarefied region numerically using DSMC method. To deduce accurate results efficiently, the preconditioned scheme is introduced to calculate continuum flow fields inside thruster to predict nozzle exit properties used for inlet conditions of DSMC method. By combining these two methods, the rarefied flow characteristics of plume such as strong nonequilibrium near nozzle exit, large back flow region, etc, can be investigated.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.37 no.9
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• pp.906-915
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• 2009

To study the plume effects in the vacuum area, the Direct Simulation Monte Carlo(DSMC) method is usually adopted because the plume field usually contains the entire range of flow regime from the near-continuum in the vicinity of nozzle exit through transitional state to free molecular at far field region from the nozzle. The objective of this study is to investigate the behaviors of a small monopropellant thruster plume in the vacuum area numerically using DSMC method. To deduce accurate results efficiently, the preconditioned scheme is introduced to calculate continuum flow fields inside thruster to predict nozzle exit properties used for inlet conditions of DSMC method. By combining these two methods, the vacuum flow characteristics of plume such as strong nonequilibrium near nozzle exit, large back flow area, etc, can be investigated.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.18 no.4
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• pp.1-8
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• 2014

Overexpanded flow of an axisymmetric thruster nozzle is numerically simulated to investigate effects of nozzle pressure ratio (NPR) on the shock structure and thrust performance. The Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equations with k-${\omega}$ SST turbulence model are solved utilizing FLUENT solver. As the NPR is raised, thrust performance monotonically increases with the shock structure and flow-separation point being pushed toward the nozzle exit. It is also discussed that the flow structure at nozzle-exit plane which is immediately affected by a position of nozzle-interior shocks and expansion waves, has strong influence upon the thrust performance of thruster nozzle.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2005.11a
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• pp.278-281
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• 2005

This paper present a study of size effect on electrostatic colloid micro thruster. According to results about size effect experiments indicates that the proposed mechanism allows at less than 500 volt of operating voltage for the micro thruster.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.37 no.2
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• pp.175-180
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• 2009

In this article, we fabricated polytetrafluoroethylene(PTFE) nozzle treated by ion beam, in order to fabricate polymer based electrospray micro thruster with super hydrophobic nozzle. To obtain the super hydrophobic surface, PTFE surface is treated by argon and oxygen plasma treatment process. The optimal condition is investigated argon and oxygen flow rate as well as the paalied energy level for the treatment process. Fabricated nozzle was evaluated by measuring contact angle, and the surface morphology was examined by using scanning electron microscope(SEM) and atomic force microscope(AFM). We observe that jetting becomes more stable and repeatable on the treated nozzle. And to evaluate performance of fabricated nozzle, we measure micro scale thrust using a cantilever and a nozzle treated by ion beam laser displacement sensor.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2012.05a
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• pp.167-171
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• 2012

A computational analysis of nozzle flow is conducted to investigate effects of the flight altitude on thrust performance. Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes equation with k-${\omega}$ SST(Shear Stress Transport) turbulence model is employed to simulate the nozzle flow in various altitude conditions, where continuum mechanics is to be valid. Thrust performance of the nozzle is exceedingly poor upto 10 km of flight altitude because of the irreversible phenomena such as shock and/or flow separation occurring inside the nozzle, whereas it is restored to the nominal value as the altitude is attained higher than 30 km.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.17 no.2
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• pp.63-70
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• 2013

To analyze flow characteristics of the side jet thruster with 4 shutters and rectangular nozzles, a 3-D simulation has been implemented. Numerical calculations for two rotation angles of the shutter, have been conducted. Internal recirculation in a chamber and asymmetric flow structure in a nozzle were observed. In addition, the more shutter rotated, the more asymmetries of flow increased, and this phenomena resulted in thrust bias. The degrees of thrust bias and thrust performance with the rotation angles of the shutter were predicted and compared with theoretical thrust.

• Proceedings of the KSME Conference
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• 2007.05b
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• pp.2862-2867
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• 2007

The steady non-reacted compressible flow field in a symmetric micro-thruster, which is used for the accurate attitude control of a satellite, is analyzed varying the nozzle pressure ratio (NPR) to investigate the plume characteristics. The nozzle throat diameter is 0.06 inch and the area ratio is 56. The recirculation region is found just behind the normal shock at the several NPRs due to the locally adverse pressure gradient along the nozzle centerline when the environmental pressure is atmospheric. This phenomenon, the cause of flow loss, is similar to the flow behind a blunt body. As NPR increases the location of Mach disk, characteristics of the normal shock, moves downstream and its strength increases. The Mach number distribution appears in a wave-type patter after the normal shock because oblique shocks are reflected on the shock boundaries especially when NPRs are very high.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2006.11a
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• pp.251-254
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• 2006

Micro thruster is a key technology in the micro/nano satellite. MSPT has been attracted attention as a one of possible solution for micro thruster MSPT as a systems four components. It is composed of nozzle, igniter, combustion chamber and propellant. This paper surveys varioud MSPTs which have been reported. The model of MSPT arrays for total impulse of 1 mNs is proposed. Combustion chamber is designed and fabricated.