Title: Performance of silane/nitrous oxide as bipropellants for space propulsion

Authors: Stephen M. Davis; Nadir Yilmaz

Addresses: Department of Materials Engineering, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, 87801 Socorro, NM, USA ' Department of Mechanical Engineering, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, 87801 Socorro, NM, USA

Abstract: As the use of satellites increases for communication and other applications so does the need for higher-performance propellants; particularly ones which are environmentally friendly. Hypergolic propellants based upon nitrous oxide and/or silanes are important avenue for investigation. In this study the theoretical performance of a silane-based propellant incorporating ethane, ethene, and ethyne with the oxidisers LOX, NTO, liquefied air, HNO₃, and N₂O were determined. The vacuum specific impulse and density vacuum specific impulse of N₂O-silane propellants were 2,885 kg-m/s² and 2,977 kg-m/s², respectively. It was additionally shown that the addition of ethyne to silane improves the performance for all oxidisers with the exception of air. The inherently high oxidiser/fuel ratio of nitrous oxide with fuel at stoichiometry was shown to be advantageous for a silane propellant in decreasing the volume of condensed species in the exhaust.

Keywords: hypergolic propellants; silane; nitrous oxide; N2O; green propellants; bipropellants; space propulsion; satellites; ethane; ethene; ethyne; stoichiometry.

DOI: 10.1504/IJSA.2016.082199

International Journal of Sustainable Aviation, 2016 Vol.2 No.4, pp.284 - 290

Received: 27 Jun 2016
Accepted: 03 Oct 2016
Published online: 12 Feb 2017 *

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