Design, fabrication and thrust measurement of a micro liquid monopropellant thruster

Abstract

A liquid monopropellant MEMS thruster was designed, fabricated and tested. For application on a nanosatellite for orbit control, a liquid propellant MEMS thruster delivers better performance than a solid thruster. Two issues must be addressed for a liquid monopropellant MEMS thruster: high energy content of the monopropellant to overcome the excessive heat loss associated with the small scale of the thruster, and repeatability of generated thrust force. The present study proposed blending 90 wt% hydrogen peroxide with ethanol at an oxidizer to fuel ratio of 30 to enhance the energy content of the propellant. The thruster structure was constructed using glass layers that were individually patterned by wet etching. The decomposition catalyst was separately prepared by wet impregnation of the active material, Pt, on the gamma alumina pellets and inserted into the thrust chamber before the UV bonding process of the glass layers. The firing test of the assembled MEMS thruster was conducted and thrust was measured both with ethanol blended hydrogen peroxide and pure hydrogen peroxide as a reference monopropellant. The measured thrusts were approximately 30 mN for both 1.7 ml min−1 flow rate of blended hydrogen peroxide and 2.0 ml min−1 flow rate of pure hydrogen peroxide. The measured thrust for 1.7 ml min−1 pure hydrogen peroxide was approximately 24 mN. The measured thrust was 40% less than the design thrust for both monopropellants. The uncertainty of the thrust was less with blended monopropellant than with pure hydrogen peroxide.