ARTICLE
Study of the effects of preheated wall/plates in microthruster systems
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Aerospace Faculty, Malek Ashtar University of Technology, Tehran, Iran
Submission date: 2016-12-31
Acceptance date: 2017-11-07
Online publication date: 2018-07-15
Publication date: 2018-07-15
Journal of Theoretical and Applied Mechanics 2018;56(3):713-725
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ABSTRACT
In the present paper, effects of pre-heated walls/plates on microthrusters performance are
studied using a DSMC/NS solver. Three microthruster configuration types are studied.
Type 1 is a cold gas microthrster. Microthruster type 2 has pre-heated walls. Pre-heated
plates are inserted inside the chamber of microthruster type 3. It is observed that in mi-
crothruster type 2 the flow is accelerated and the specific impulse is elevated. However, by
insertion of the pre-heated plates in microthruster type 3, viscous effects have stronger nega-
tive influence and the thrust is decreased. By implementing temperature gradients on walls
in type 2 and on plates in type 3, it is observed that a higher temperature gradient enhances
performance parameters of microthruters. Among all types of microthrusters, microthruster
type 2 with pre-heated walls has the highest thrust and specific impulse. Microthruster ty-
pe 3 with a temperature gradient of 300-500K has the minimum thrust due to a considerable
decrease in the mass flow rate.