HYPERGOLIC IGNITION OF A KEROSENE-BASED GEL FUEL WITH HYDROGEN PEROXIDE IN ROCKET MOTORS

This paper seeks to characterize the hypergolic ignition process of a proprietary propellant. The composition of this propellant comprises hydrogen peroxide as the oxidizer, a kerosene-based gel fuel, and sodium borohydride as an energetic additive. An experimental parametric investigation was conducted in order to correlate between different physical and chemical parameters that affect ignition delay times. The aforementioned parameters are Weber and Reynolds numbers, momentum, kinetic energy, and hydrogen peroxide concentration. The videos of the conducted drop-on-drop test were analyzed using digital image processing. The phenomenon of ignition and combustion of the gelled fuel was divided into two main events: primary ignition and fuel ignition. These delay times were calculated and plotted versus all different parameters and analyzed. An increase in momentum and kinetic energy led to a ~ 40% reduction in both primary and fuel ignition delay times. Usage of 90% hydrogen peroxide led to a decrease of >20 ms compared to 70% hydrogen peroxide. Minimal ignition delays of 4–5 ms were observed.