Arcjet rocket

About: Arcjet rocket is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 1121 publications have been published within this topic receiving 9687 citations. The topic is also known as: Arcjet.

Monte Carlo and experimental studies of nozzle flow in a low-power hydrogen arcjet

Abstract: The flow in the nozzle of a small hydrogen arcjet intended for low-thrust propulsion is studied without arc ignition using numerical and experimental techniques. The flow conditions in the thruster indicate that low-density nonequilibrium effects will significantly influence the flow. Therefore, the numerical analysis is undertaken using a Monte Carlo approach. The experimental studies employ laser Raman scattering. Comparisons of the measured and computed results are made for total number density, rotational temperature, and for the number density of the first rotational level. The numerical results are found to be quite sensitive to the rotational relaxation rate, and a strong degree of thermal nonequilibrium is observed at the exit plane of the nozzle. Successful comparisons between experiment and analysis permit estimation of the rotational relaxation rate for hydrogen.

Two-Dimensional Finite Element Ablative Thermal Response Analysis of an Arcjet Stagnation Test

Abstract: The finite element ablation and thermal response (FEAtR, hence forth called FEAR) design and analysis program simulates the one, two, or three-dimensional ablation, internal heat conduction, thermal decomposition, and pyrolysis gas flow of thermal protection system materials. As part of a code validation study, two-dimensional axisymmetric results from FEAR are compared to thermal response data obtained from an arc-jet stagnation test in this paper. The results from FEAR are also compared to the two-dimensional axisymmetric computations from the two-dimensional implicit thermal response and ablation program under the same arcjet conditions. The ablating material being used in this arcjet test is phenolic impregnated carbon ablator with an LI-2200 insulator as backup material. The test is performed at the NASA, Ames Research Center Interaction Heating Facility. Spatially distributed computational fluid dynamics solutions for the flow field around the test article are used for the surface boundary conditions.

Simulation of the Stagnation Region Microcrack Growth During Space Shuttle Reentry

Abstract: The newly developed reinforced-carbon―carbon damage assessment model is applied to a micrometeoroid crack at the stagnation point of a sphere for a space shuttle reentry trajectory. The model, which has been validated against arcjet tests (Titov, E., Zhong, J., Levin, D., and Picetti, D., "Simulation of Carbon―Carbon Crack Growth due to Carbon Oxidation in High Temperatures," Journal of Thermophysics and Heat Transfer, Vol. 23, No. 3, July― Sept. 2009, pp. 489―501.) (Titov, E., Levin, D., Picetti, D., and Anderson, B. P., "Thermal Protection System Crack Growth Simulation Using Advanced Grid Morphing Techniques," Journal of Thermophysics and Heat Transfer, Vol. 24, No. 4, 2010, pp. 708―720.), predicts the microhole wall material response to the high-energy, atomic oxygen rich flow to simulate a micrometeoroid impact of the space shuttle nose cap shield during the STS-5 mission reentry. The extent of the crack damage site hole diameter was found to grow by a factor of 2.7, which agrees within about 30% of the NASA Johnson Space Center reinforced-carbon―carbon damage growth tool, version 2, a semi-empirical approach developed through extensive arcjet testing.