EFFECTS OF REGENERATIVE AND RADIATION COOLING ON PERFORMANCE OF ELECTROTHERMAL THRUSTORS

摘要

The effects of regenerative and radiation cooling on thrustor performance, as judged by the specific impulse, are presented for a frozen flow with a con¬stant input power and propellant flow rate.nIn general, the performance gains to be achieved by regenerative cooling are strongly dependent on such operating parameters as gas enthalpy, wall tem¬perature, and amount of regenerative cooling. For example, when the frozen-flow efficiency decreases with increasing gas enthalpy, increased regenerative cooling results in a small gain or a loss in performance, depending on the wall temper¬ature. When the frozen-flow efficiency increases with increased enthalpy, how¬ever, significant performance gains due to regenerative cooling can be antici¬pated, regardless of the assumed wall temperature.