Rheological Characterization of Hydrogen Peroxide Gel Propellant

Abstract

An experimental investigation on the rheological behavior of gelled hydrogen peroxide at different ambient temperature (283.15, 293.15 and 303.15 K) was carried out in this study. The gel propellant was rheologically characterized using a rheometer, in the shear rate ranges of 1 to 20 s -1 , and 1 to 1000 s -1 . Hydrogen peroxide gel was found to be thixotropic in nature. The apparent viscosity value with some yield stress (in-case of shear rate 1 to 20 s -1 ) drastically fell with the shear rate.In the case of the shear rate range of 1 to 20 s -1 , the apparent viscosity and yield stress of gel were significantly reduced at higher ambient temperatures. In the case of the shear rate range of 1 to 1000 s -1 , no significant effect of varying the ambient temperature on the gel apparent viscosity was observed. The up and down shear rate curves for hydrogen peroxide gel formed a hysteresis loop that showed no significant change with variation in temperature for both the 1 to 20 s -1 and the 1 to 1000 s -1 shear rate ranges. No significant change in the thixotropic index of gel was observed for different ambient temperatures, for both low and high shear rates. The gel in the 1 to 20 s -1 shear rate range did not lead to a complete breakdown of gel structure, in comparison to that in the 1 to 1000 s -1 shear rate range.

Hypergolic Studies of Ethanol Based Gelled Bi-Propellant System for Propulsion Application

“…The gel fuels are still in a very early stage as many studies are being conducted for their feasibility and redundancy in its application to space exploration. One such type of gel fuel is ethanol based system formulated by introducing gelling agent such as derivative of cellulose [1][2][3][4][5]. Ethanol was selected based on its application in past as a rocket fuel used for German V-2 missile, Jupiter C, American Redstone Rocket, etc.…”

“…The time between fluid contact and ignition is a function of mixing, chemical kinetics, heat transfer, initial temperature, ambient temperature etc. Especially, for a gel propellant system where viscosity and viscoelastic properties play a vital role [1][2][3][4][5], it has to overcome flow resistance for initiating flow and fuel-oxidizer mixing for exothermic chemical reaction [6][7][8][9]. A marked difference in the physio-chemical properties of the gel system in comparison to conventional liquid propellants may lead to significant changes in their ignition and combustion behaviors.…”

Effect of Alcohol Carbon Chain on Enthalpy of Combustion and Ignition Delay Time for Gelled Hypergolic Propellant System

“…In this article, the choice of mass fraction of components in a gel fuel was based on these parameters (type of gelling agent and its weight percent). The criterion for choosing the mass fraction of components for gelation of parent fuel is based on the viscoelastic property which in turn depends on type and weight percent of gelling agent [6][7][8][9][10][11]. The references [6][7][8][9][10][11] discuss the detailed understanding of gel fuel formulation and its rheological characterization.…”

“…It remains in the liquid state at ambient pressure in a wide range of temperature and is relatively easy to handle with respect to other liquid rocket propellants like dinitrogen tetroxide, HNO 3 (density = 1.51 g/cm 3 , vapor pressure= 6399. 5 Pa and freezing 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 point = À42 8C), LOx (density = 1.141 g/cm 3 , and freezing point = À218.79 8C) [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11].…”

“…Firstly, the gellant used being organic in nature actively participate in combustion. Secondly, The gel system have the benefits of both liquid and solid propellant [4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11]. Hypergolicity of such bipropellant system with hydrogen peroxide can be achieved through suitable catalyst as a catalytically driven hypergolic bipropellant system [12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21].…”