Pulsed Chemical Rocket with Green High Performance Propellants

摘要

PulCheR (Pulsed Chemical Rocket with Green High Performance Propellants) is a new propulsion concept in which the propellants are fed in the combustion chamber at low pressure and the thrust is generated by means of high frequency pulses, reproducing the defence mechanism of a notable insect: the bombardier beetle. The radical innovation introduced by PulCheR is the elimination of any external pressurizing system even if the thruster works at high pressure inside the combustion chamber. At each pulse, pressurization of the combustion chamber gases takes place due to the decomposition or combustion reaction, and the final pressure is much higher than the one at which the propellants are stored. The weight of the feeding system is significantly reduced because the propellants are fed at low pressure, and there is no need for turbopumps, high pressure propellant tanks or gas vessels. The feed pressure becomes independent on the chamber pressure and the performance degradation typical of the blow down mode in monopropellant thrusters can be avoided. The PulCheR concept is able to substitute many currently used propulsion systems for accessing space in both mono and bipropellant configurations. The preliminary assessment of this new propulsion concept has been investigated using green propellants with potential similar performance to the current state-of-the-art for monopropellant and bipropellant thrusters.