Influence of Design Factors on the Thrust Performance of a Green Monopropellant Reaction System with Plasma

Abstract

A green monopropellant reaction system that substitutes discharge plasma for conventional catalysts has been studied. This reaction system was developed for use in the 1 N thrusters of spacecraft reaction control systems. However, the thrust generated by this system was found to be only tens of millinewtons, with a thrust-to-power ratio of about 0.2 mN/W. To improve the thrust and thrust-to-power ratio of the reaction system, we studied and evaluated the effects of electrode axial gap, discharge chamber diameter, discharge type, electrode diameter, and target combustion chamber pressure on thrust and thrust-to-power ratio. All five factors except the electrode diameter had a main effect and four types of interaction on the thrust were confirmed. However, only the target combustion chamber pressure had a main effect on the thrust-to-power ratio and two types of interactions were confirmed. A thrust of 322 mN with a thrust-to-power ratio of 0.95 mN/W was achieved through system optimization.