Performance of the MEMS Vaporizing Liquid Microthruster using cold nitrogen gas as propellant

An experimental study

Master thesis (2018)

Authors

R.A. Makhan Aerospace Engineering

Contributors

B.T.C. Zandbergen (supervisor 1)
Faculty
Aerospace Engineering
Copyright: © 2018 Rajeev Makhan
MEMS Resistojet Microthruster
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Published Date

13-12-2018

Language

English

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Faculty

Aerospace Engineering

Abstract

This thesis includes an experimental study about the performance of a third generation MEMS-VLM chip. The influence of the throat Reynolds number on the discharge factor and the nozzle quality was investigated. This was done by measuring the mass flow and thrust force for a chamber pressure range of 2-5 [bar] using nitrogen gas as propellant. It was found that increasing the Reynolds number from 600 to 2000 was beneficial since the nozzle quality increased from 0.19 to 0.60 and the discharge factor from 0.77 to 0.91. The found nozzle quality and discharge factor were lower than values found in literature. It was hypothesized that this was because the 2D design of the MEMS-VLM chip is more sensitive for boundary layer formation.