Hypergolic fuel has unique importance in missiles and satellite launch vehicles. Hydrazine and its derivatives (Monomethyl hydrazine, MMH and Unsymmetrical Dimethyl Hydrazine, UDMH) are the continuous choices of fuel in bipropellant though it is carcinogenic and toxic. Development of new, green and cost-effective fuel blends based on trust-worthy, ionic liquid and biofuel in different volume proportion have been reported. The blends exhibit reasonably good stability (chemical and thermal), low viscosity (η 1 g/cm3), low ignition delay and high performance in comparison with UDMH - a proven liquid fuel presently being used as promising fuels for liquid rocket application. The reported blends appear to be a technologically promising, eco-friendly and affordable fuel blend to replace currently used liquid toxic fuels.

Ionic Liquid and Biofuel Blend: A Low–cost and High Performance Hypergolic Fuel for Propulsion Application

Comparative investigation on combustion characteristics of ADN-based liquid propellants in inert gas and oxidizing gas atmospheres with resistive ignition method

SRMSAT: A Feasibility Study on Small Satellite Mission to Moon

Dual Propulsion System Design for Small Spacecraft

Simulation study on optimization design of structural parameters of 150N-class hydroxylammonium nitrate(HAN)-based thruster

Propellant grade hydrazine was prepared with 64 per cent yield and 95.5 per cent purity. Purity of the propellant grade hydrazine was determined using wet chemical, gas chromatographic (GC) and eudiometric methods. It was observed that the compositions containing blends of hydrazine-methyl alcohol-ammonium nitrate and hydrazine-methyl alcohol-ammonium perchlorate were not found to be frozen even after cooling to -65 °C for 30 minutes. Mono and bi-propellant thrusters were designed and developed to demonstrate the performance of prepared propellant grade hydrazine as a promising rocket fuel. Five static tests with 22 N thruster and one static test with 1 N thruster were performed successfully in mono-propellant mode. The hurdles of chamber pressure oscillations were overcome by compact packing of the catalyst. The desired decomposition and chamber pressure were achieved. One static test was performed successfully with 60 N bi-propellant thruster. The desired chamber pressure and thrust were achieved. The combustion was smooth and C* achieved was higher than that of UH-25, N2O4 combination. The performance of prepared propellant grade hydrazine shows it as a promising rocket fuels.Defence Science Journal, Vol. 65, No. 1, January 2015, pp.31-38, DOI:http://dx.doi.org/10.14429/dsj.65.7986

S. G. Kulkarni

Papers

Propellant Grade Hydrazine in Mono/Bi-propellant Thrusters: Preparation and Performance Evaluation