Heat and Mass Transfer Analysis of a Film Evaporative MEMS Tunable Array Thruster

摘要

This paper details the heat and mass transfer analysis of a MEMs microthruster designed to provide propulsive, reaction control and thermal control capability to a cubesat This thruster functions by retaining water using capillary action and applying resistive in order to raise the temperature of the water. This increase causes either evaporation or induces boiling. The resulting vapor is expanded out of a diverging nozzle to produce thrust Because of the scale of this thruster, unique forms of mass transfer analysis such as Direct Simulation Monte Carlo methods were required. COMSOL Multiphysics was used to model heat and mass transfer in the solid and liquid portions of the thruster. The two methods were equated using a bisection solving scheme. Barring minor technical difficulties in thruster testing, this concept could provide a means for micropropulsion onboard cubesats that otherwise does not exist at this time.