A Model for Ammonia Solar Thermal Thruster

Abstract

This paper is an attempt to investigate the nozzle expansion of a solar thruster that uses ammonia as propellant. For this purpose we have developed a state to state kinetic model to study the dissociation of ammonia in supersonic nozzle expansion. The properties of the thruster depend on the ammonia dissociation degree in the reservoir, which can be very far from equilibrium due to the very slow dissociation kinetics at the thruster working conditions (<2000 K). We have extended the calculation for higher temperatures (>2500 K) where ammonia dissociation is higher. Due to the presence of some hydrogen atoms, non- Boltzmann distributions have been observed.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Apr 01, 2005
Accession Number
ADA435783

Entities

People

  • Fred Kennedy
  • Gianpiero Colonna
  • Giulia Capitta
  • Ingrid Wysong
  • Mario Capitelli

Organizations

  • Air Force Research Laboratory

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies
  • Materials and Manufacturing Processes

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Air Force
  • Air Force Research Laboratories
  • Chemical Kinetics
  • Chemical Reaction Properties
  • Chemical Reactions
  • Chemistry
  • Decomposition
  • Dissociation
  • Energy
  • Engines
  • Equations
  • Flow Rate
  • Hydrogen
  • Kinetics
  • Mach Number
  • Quantum Numbers
  • Thrusters

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Electrochemical Engineering/ Fuel Cell Technologies
  • Fluid Dynamics.
  • Rocket Propulsion.

Technology Areas

  • Hypersonics
  • Hypersonics - Hypersonic Flight
  • Hypersonics - Hypersonic Flow
  • Space
  • Space - Hall-Effect Thruster