23rd Congress of International Council of the Aeronautical Sciences, 8-13 September, 2002, Toronto, Canada
Paper ICAS 2002-8.3.4

THERMODYNAMIC DESIGN OF AN ALTERNATIVE MONOPROPELLANT FOR EMERGENCY POWER UNITS

S. Matsumura, J. J. Rusek
Purdue University, USA

Keywords: hydrogen peroxide, monopropellant, emergency power units

A monopropellant to replace hydrazine in emergency power units is formulated from a thermodynamic design approach. Combustion products from the mixture of hydrogen peroxide and organic fuel have shown that the energy available far exceeds that of pure hydrogen peroxide or of hydrazine. Kinetic tests showed that the mixture ratios that can be auto-ignited was bound to a region within about 30% of stoichiometric mixture ratios.

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