Ignition processes and characteristics of charring conductive polymers with a cavity geometry in precombustion chamber for applications in micro/nano satellite hybrid rocket motors

The arc ignition system based on charring polymers has advantages of simple structure,low ignition power consumption and multiple ignitions,which bringing it broadly application prospect in hybrid propulsion system of micro/nano satellite.However,charring polymers alone need a relatively high input voltage to achieve pyrolysis and ignition,which increases the burden and cost of the power system of micro/nano satellite in practical application.Adding conductive substance into charring polymers can effectively decrease the conducting voltage which can realize low voltage and low power consumption repeated ignition of arc ignition system.In this paper,a charring conductive polymer ignition grain with a cavity geometry in precombustion chamber,which is composed of PLA and multiwall carbon nanotubes(MWCNT)was proposed.The detailed ignition processes were analyzed and two different ignition mechanisms in the cavity of charring conductive polymers were revealed.The ignition characteristics of charring conductive polymers were also investigated at different input voltages,ignition grain structures,ignition locations and injection schemes in a visual ignition combustor.The results demonstrated that the ignition delay and external energy required for ignition were inversely correlated with the voltages applied to ignition grain.Moreover,the incremental depth of cavity shortened the ignition delay and external energy required for ignition while accelerated the propagation of flame.As the depth of cavity increased from 2 to 6 mm(at 50 V),the time of flame propagating out of ignition grain changed from 235.6 to 108 ms,and values of mean ignition delay time and mean external energy required for ignition decreased from 462.8 to 320 ms and 16.2 to 10.75 J,respectively.The rear side of the cavity was the ideal ignition position which had a shorter ignition delay and a faster flame propagation speed in comparison to other ignition positions.Compared to direct injection scheme,swirling injection provided a more favorable flow field environment in the cavity,which was beneficial to ignition and initial flame propagation,but the ignition position needed to be away from the outlet of swirling injector.At last,the repeated ignition characteristic of charring conductive polymers was also investigated.The ignition delay time and external energy required for ignition decreased with repeated ignition times but the variation was decreasing gradually.

Numerical and Experimental Studies on the Effect of Axial Spacing on Hydrodynamic Performance of the Hybrid CRP Pod Propulsion System

The hydrodynamic performance of a hybrid CRP pod propulsion system was studied by RANS method with SST k ？？ turbulence model and sliding mesh. The effect of axial spacing on the hydrodynamic performance of the hybrid CRP pod propulsion system was investigated numerically and experimentally. It shows that RANS with the sliding mesh method and SST k -ω turbulence model predicts accurately the hydrodynamic performance of the hybrid CRP pod propulsion system. The axial spacing has little influence on the hydrodynamic performance of the forward propeller, but great influence on that of the pod unit. Thrust coefficient of the pod unit declines with the increase of the axial spacing, but the trend becomes weaker, and the decreasing amplitude at the lower advance coefficient is larger than that at the higher advance coefficient. The thrust coefficient and open water efficiency of the hybrid CRP pod propulsion system decrease with the increase of the axial spacing, while the torque coefficient keeps almost constant. On this basis, the design principle of axial spacing of the hybrid CRP pod propulsion system was proposed.

Review of hybrid electric powered aircraft,its conceptual design and energy management methodologies

The paper overviews the state-of-art of aircraft powered by hybrid electric propulsion systems.The research status of the design and energy management of hybrid aircraft and hybrid propulsion systems are further reviewed.The first contribution of the review is to demonstrate that,in the context of relatively underdeveloped electrical storage technologies,the study of mid-scale hybrid aircraft can contribute the most to both theoretical and practical knowledge.Meanwhile,the profits and potential drawbacks of applying hybrid propulsion to mid-scale hybrid airplanes have not been thoroughly illustrated.Secondly,as summed in the overview of design methodologies,the multi-objective optimization transcends the single-objective one.The potential of the hybrid propulsion system can be thoroughly evaluated in only one optimization run,if several objectives optimized simultaneously.Yet there are few researches covering the conceptual design of hybrid aircraft using multi-objective optimization.The review of the most popular energy management strategies discloses the third research gap—current methodologies favoured in hybrid ground vehicles do not consider the aircraft safety.Additionally,both non-causal and causal energy management are needed for performing a complicated flight mission with several sub-tasks.