Development of a 400N bipropellant thrust chamber

• Grant number: 16/50160-2
• Support Opportunities: Research Grants - Innovative Research in Small Business - PIPE
• Start date: June 01, 2018
• End date: September 30, 2020
• Field of knowledge: Engineering - Aerospace Engineering - Aerospace Propulsion
• Agreement: FINEP - PIPE/PAPPE Grant
• Principal Investigator: Lauro Benassi
• Grantee: Lauro Benassi
• Company: Fibraforte Engenharia Indústria e Comércio Ltda
• City: São José dos Campos

Abstract

Thrusters are essential components for attitude control systems and orbiting space artifacts such as rockets and satellites. It is in the thrust chamber that the fuel is burnt and the thrust is generated. High temperatures are developed in the thrust chambers requiring the manufacture with refractory materials whose melting temperatures exceed 2000oC. Because of the high melting temperatures, refractory materials are subjected to severe oxidation at the high temperatures to which the camera operates, requiring its use for successful application of coatings that act as thermal barriers to protect the niobium substrate. In this work, we propose the development of a thrust chamber using niobium or alloys thereof. It will be necessary to develop special techniques for machining, forming and welding appropriate to the intrinsic characteristics of the material and its application to achieve the ultimate goal. The main thrust chamber consists of two parts, the combustion chamber and the expansion nozzle. The combustion chamber will be manufactured by machining from a billet of Niobium. The expansion cone on the other hand, as a component of reduced thickness and significantly larger dimensions, will be manufactured by a forming process, for example, spinning-forming from a Niobium sheet. The combustion chamber is then integrated by welding to the expansion cone resulting in a Thrust Chamber The thrust chamber shall pass to the coating process in the external and internal surfaces in order to resist the oxidation environment. For this coating it is preliminary considering two alternatives: application of aluminum in the external and internal surfaces and subjected it to high temperatures resulting in an aluminide barrier in the surface. The second option is to apply a coating to Si-Cr-Fe base and subjected it to high temperatures resulting in a silicide barrier in the surface. The resulting chamber is integrated in the injection system forming the Thruster, must provide the required performance demonstrated by ability to withstand an engine burning without evidence of failure. (AU)