Tridyne as a Propellant for Low Thrust Rocket Thrusters

Aeronautical and Space-Rocket Engineering


Аuthors

Dvoryantseva E. A.1, 2*, Vertakov N. M.1**, Rumyantsev А. V.2***, Bogach M. V.2****

1. Experimental Design Bureau “Fakel”, 181, Moskovsky av, Kaliningrad, 236001, Russia
2. Immanuel Kant Baltic Federal University, IKBFU, 14, A. Nevskogo str., Kaliningrad, 236041, Russia

*e-mail: eva.edle@mail.ru
**e-mail: vertakov@fakel-russia.com
***e-mail: albert37@list.ru
****e-mail: info@fakel-russia.com

Abstract

The article presents the relevance of the gaseous mixture of oxygen, hydrogen and nitrogen, or the tridyne mixture application as a propellant. It gives a definition of the term “tridyne” as a gaseous mixture of the fuel, oxidizer and inert gas. The history of the tridyne creation and the state of the world developments on this subject at present time are presented. 
The term “tridyne” was introduced by the American Rocketdyne compay. The content of their mixture was as follows: N2 – 85%, H2 – 10% and O2 – 5%. In addition to Rocketdyne, the tridyne thrusters were developed as well at the University of Washington, Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Lincoln Laboratory. 
The purpose of the present study consists in to expanding both theoretical and practical knowledge of the tridyne properties.
The article presents a description of the tridyne gas thrusters operation principle, computation of theoretical temperature in the chamber, as well as specific impulse and composition of the combustion products for various mixtures. Changing of temperature, specific impulse and composition of combustion products are presented as a function of hydrogen percentage in the mixture at fixed oxygen concentrations: 4.2, 5.0 and 7.0%.
The article describes stand-alone tests of a tridyne mixture thruster at the EDB “Fakel” and their results, performs comparison of the specific impulse theoretical values with the experimental ones. The two mixture compositions with oxygen concentrations below 7% were selected for testing: N2 – 25%, H2 – 68%, O2 – 7% and N2 – 5.5%, H2 – 90.3%, O2 – 4.2%. The thrusters tests had positive result: the achieved value of the specific impulse was ~ 80% to 84% of the theoretical value.
The article performed the tridyne mixture efficiency assessment on the example of the gas propulsion system developed by the EDB “Fakel”. Comparison of fueling with the standard nitrogen working fluid and tridyne was performed. The total thrust impulse was used as the key parameter for comparison. The article adduces the dependence of the total thrust impulse on the hydrogen percentage in the mixture at fixed oxygen concentrations of 4.2, 5.0 and 7.0 %.
Compared to nitrogen, tridyne is of a greater interest as a gaseous propellant, since this mixture does not require an electric heater to improve thruster performances. Besides, this propellant may present an alternative to the hydrazine for application on small spacecraft and cubesats.

Keywords:

tridyne gas mixture, low thrust gas rocket engine, gas working fluid, compressed nitrogen, gas propulsion system

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