Solid hypergols are investigated as potential additives for hybrid rocket application. Combined with a common fuel binder, they can simplify the overall complexity of the hybrid rocket system, as the igniter now consists in using the hypergolic reaction between the liquid oxidizer and the solid hypergol. The fuel grain can therefore be ignited and reignited without any external power source. In this study, we investigated the use of sodium amide as a potential solid hypergolic additive. The main objective of this study was to demonstrate hypergolic ignition and successive relights of a two-inch motor grain configuration, with a paraffin-based fuel and MON-3 as the oxidizer. Hypergolic ignition was achieved with grain configurations composed of a front section with 90 wt.% sodium amide in a paraffin-based fuel, and the main grain with loading of additive from 40 wt.% down to 0 wt.%. In addition, we performed two-second single-burn tests to get more accurate estimates of the regression rates of the different fuel combinations. Future work will consist in investigating additional additives with lower ignition delays to minimize the ignition delay of the motor.
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