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.

Development and life-testing of 10 kW class thermal arcjet engines

Abstract: A facility to develop and test thermal arcjet engines over extended periods of time has been constructed and is described in this paper. It consists of a large vacuum tank, high capacity vacuum pumps, a 100 kW power supply and a large ammonia propellant storage and delivery system. The facility is instrumented to measure electrical power dissipated in the engine, propellant mass flow rate and developed thrust. Pressures and temperatures up to 2400 K can also be measured. The entire facility is computer-controlled and can be operated unattended for many weeks. Two 30 kW thermal arcjet engines that have been designed, built and are being tested in this facility are also described.

Throttling mechanism for controlling the thrust level of a solid propellant rocket motor

Abstract: A throttling mechanism for the nozzle of a solid propellant rocket motor that is capable of selectively controlling the effective area of the discharge orifices of the nozzle whereby the magnitude of the thrust of the solid propellant rocket motor may be varied.

Axial emission measurements on a medium power hydrogen arcjet thruster

Abstract: A numerical and experimental investigation of the axial emission of a 5 kW class radiatively-cooled hydrogen arcjet thruster is presented. The complete visible spectrum is modeled, taking into account graybody thermal emission from the cathode and plasma radiation from hydrogen atoms and free electrons. The cathode temperature and the arc electron number density are obtained from the measured emission spectrum. The cathode temperature is found to be in the neighbourhood of the melting point of tungsten and increases with arcjet power at a constant massflow rate, suggesting an increase in the current density at the arc attachment point. The measured near-cathode electron number density is also found to increase with power, suppofling the idea of an increasing arc current density with arcjet power. The measured and modeled arc electron densities are, however, in discrepancy by a factor of approximately three.