laminated gas generator actuator arrays

255 Pages·2006·16.01 MB·English

LAMINATED GAS GENERATOR ACTUATOR ARRAYS
A Thesis
Presented to
The Academic Faculty
by
Brian A. English
In Partial Fulfillment
of the Requirements for the Degree
Doctor of Philosophy in the
Woodruff School of Mechanical Engineering
Georgia Institute of Technology
December 2006
LAMINATED GAS GENERATOR ACTUATOR ARRAYS
Approved by:
Dr. Mark G. Allen, Advisor Dr. Andrei Federov
Electrical and Computer Engineering Woodruff School of Mechanical
Georgia Institute of Technology Engineering
Georgia Institute of Technology
Dr. Ari Glezer, CoAdvisor Dr. Peter J. Hesketh
Woodruff School of Mechanical Woodruff School of Mechanical
Engineering Engineering
Georgia Institute of Technology Georgia Institute of Technology
Dr. Jerry M. Seitzman Date Approved: December 2006
Guggenheim School of Aerospace
Engineering
Georgia Institute of Technology
In memory of my father,
Eugene Walter English,
November 29, 1945 - October 23, 2005.
iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
Many people deserve recognition for helping me to complete this degree. Some directly
helped meet the needs of my project, some helped me remain determined to finish, and
some simply made the PhD process more tolerable.
First, I’d like to thank my adviser, Mark Allen. Dr. Allen acquired the funding that
supported my education. He has supplied leadership, direction, and technical help for
several projects that I worked on. I thank Dr. Allen for his management style which
has allowed independent thought and research, and I appreciate when he challenged me to
defend my concepts and conclusions. I thank my co-adviser, Ari Glezer, for the research
talks. He always seemed to be willing to discuss my project even though he was not my
primary adviser. He was particularly involved with force characterization. Ari helped to
reduce variations in fuse time by suggesting that I add acetone to the hot-wire just before
I added the solid propellant (Istanbul MEMS2006). Several other people worked directly
on the projects that supported this thesis. Chris Rinehart developed the 80 mm model to
measure aerodynamic effects of the GGAs. Chris has a very good eye for design details and
has been more than willing to offer design advice for my own projects. Heather DiBiaso
(nee Hude) measured the burn rates of several solid rocket propellants when the GGA
project began. Priya Gadiraju helped to fill and connect countless actuators when sponsor
deadlines were near.
ThankstoDARPAMAFCforprovidingfundingtodeveloptheGGAactuators. Thanks
to Georgia Tech Research Institute electrical engineer, Andre Lovas, and SCORPION
Project Manager, Jim McMichael. Andre designed the PCB boards to facilitate stacks
of actuators arrays. Also, Andre designed and implemented the control electronics which
were used in flight testing. Thanks to personnel at Army Research Laboratory at Aberdeen
Proving Grounds, MD, specifically Peter Plostins as the SCORPION project coordinator
iv
and Gordon Brown, who arranged flight experiments and provided the 40 mm projectile.
Everyone in my family have been tremendously helpful. Most importantly, my wife,
Eden, has been tolerant and supportive of the PhD process. I thank Eden for her love, my
daughter, Allison, and the child to be named later. Eden is a great editor and proofreader,
and I know that I have bored her to tears with some of my papers. I thank my mother and
father, who taught me the value of education, although they probably did not envision this
mucheducation. Ithankmysister, Lara, andbrother, Keith, forjustbeingaround. Ithank
my Mother-in-law, Beth Tyler, for thesis editing, and just generally treating me like her
own son. Thanks to Larry Tyler for career guidance, resume help, and GT football games.
Thanks to John and Lisa Fleming for countless dinners and several vacations. Thanks to
BenandCoreyHirokawa, whohavemadetheyearsflyby, andIappreciatethefood, drinks,
and games.
ImetmanygoodpeoplewhileworkingintheMSMAgroupatGeorgiaTech. EdBirdsell,
Chris Rinehart, Tom Crittenden, Chuck Chung, Todd Kaiser, Jennifer English, David Coe,
Yong Kyu Yoon, Richard Shafer. I’ve just enjoyed being friends with most of these guys,
and that has made all of this work more enjoyable. All of the “old” MSMA members were
quick to accept me into the group and start the learning curve. I enjoyed the talks about
research and life. Richard has helped me implement many of my experimental setups, and
has kept me from wasting time and money on a bad idea more than once.
v
TABLE OF CONTENTS
DEDICATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iii
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . iv
LIST OF TABLES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . ix
LIST OF FIGURES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . x
LIST OF SYMBOLS OR ABBREVIATIONS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xiv
SUMMARY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . xviii
I INTRODUCTION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
1.1 Statement of the Problem . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
1.2 Objectives and Overview . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
II REVIEW OF LITERATURE . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
2.1 Solid Propellant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8
2.1.1 Double Base Propellant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10
2.1.2 Gas Generating Propellants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 12
2.1.3 Composite Propellants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 14
2.2 Powder Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
2.3 Operation of Solid Propellant Thruster . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 28
2.4 Aerodynamic Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
2.5 Solid Propellant Microactuators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32
2.5.1 Digital Micropropulsion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
2.5.2 Micropyros . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35
2.5.3 Smart Dust . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
III MODELING AND DESIGN . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
3.1 Performance Requirements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
3.2 Ignition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
3.2.1 Ignition Theory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
3.2.2 GGA Igniter Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
3.2.3 Igniter Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 60
vi
3.3 Combustion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
3.3.1 Thermal Theory of Burning Rate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
3.3.2 GGA Combustion Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68
3.3.3 Combustion Chamber Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
3.4 Exhaust . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
3.4.1 Nozzle Model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 85
3.4.2 Nozzle Design . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
IV FABRICATION PROCESS DEVELOPMENT . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
4.1 Lamination . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 95
4.1.1 Adhesive Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
4.2 Laser Micromachining . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
4.3 Propellant Composition and Powder Preparation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
4.3.1 Powder Processing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
4.4 Integration with Electronics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 114
4.5 Fabrication Sequences . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 118
4.5.1 Radial Array of GGAs Using Laser Patterned Substrates . . . . . 118
4.5.2 Modifications for Multiple Propellants and Primers . . . . . . . . 119
4.5.3 Common Plenum for Multiple GGAs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 119
4.5.4 Radial Array of GGAs Fabricated with FR406 Thermoset Epoxy . 120
V TEST METHODS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
5.1 Gas Generation Measurements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 128
5.1.1 Characterization of Propellant Samples . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
5.1.2 Equipment and Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 129
5.2 Ignition Electronics Measurements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
5.2.1 Pulse Power . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 132
5.2.2 Fuse Time . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
5.2.3 Ignition Energy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 133
5.2.4 Equipment and Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 134
5.3 Force and Burn Time Measurements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
5.3.1 Dynamic Calibration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 138
vii
5.3.2 Combustor Performance Calculations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
5.3.3 Equipment and Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 139
5.4 Impulse Measurements . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
5.4.1 Equipment and Setup . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
5.4.2 Calculation of Impulse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 146
VI RESULTS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
6.1 Solid Propellant Gas Generation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 151
6.2 Power Supply and Hot-Wire Characterization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
6.2.1 Power Supply Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 154
6.2.2 Hot-Wire Fuse Delay and Ignition Energy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 161
6.3 Solid Propellant Composition Effects . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 168
6.4 Nozzle Characterization . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 178
6.5 GGA Performance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 184
6.6 Integration and Flight Testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 192
VII CONCLUSION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 206
7.1 GGA vs. Previous Solid Propellant Actuators . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
7.2 Summary of Research . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 210
7.3 Future Work . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 214
APPENDIX A LAMINATED ACTUATORS . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 216
APPENDIX B NUMERICAL SIMULATION . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 220
REFERENCES . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 229
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
VITA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 235
viii
LIST OF TABLES
1 Sample values of solid propellant operation at 10MPa . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
2 Properties of solid propellant components [1, 2, 3] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
3 Survey of health and detonation risks of solid propellant formulations. . . . 25
4 Survey of performance of solid propellant formulations. . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
5 Properties of igniter metal . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
6 Lamination adhesives tested . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
7 Adhesive overflow testing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 102
8 Laser-machining equipment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
9 Commercial premixed compositions . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
10 Prepared solid propellant formulations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
11 Gas production rates of solid propellants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 153
12 2-cell and 3-cell power supply comparison of igniter fuse times and total
input ignition energy. Difference is calculated as ratio of 3-cell value to 2-
cell value. Data is assumed to have a lognormal distribution. Top value is
exp(lnX +2σ ), middle value is exp(lnX).
lnX
Bottom value is exp(lnX −2σ ) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 163
lnX
13 Effect of nitrocellulose binder concentration on the specific impulse of
3:1 KClO :K (Fe(CN) ) composite propellant.. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 175
4 3 6
14 Performance values of 3:1:X KClO :K (Fe(CN) ):nitrocellulose composite
4 3 6
propellant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 187
15 Comparison of GGA to previous solid propellant microthruster development 209
ix
LIST OF FIGURES
1 Industry solid propellant processing flow chart [4] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
2 Schematic of rocket operation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 29
3 Impulse based displacement of 150 g projectile with x-velocity of 70 m/s and
32 GGA Impulse bits in the y direction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
4 Finite difference model of igniter wire and propellant . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57
5 Finite difference model of igniter wire and power supply . . . . . . . . . . . 57
6 Igniter length effects on ignition delay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
7 Igniter width effects on ignition delay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
8 Heat transfer efficiency effects on ignition delay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
9 System resistance effects on ignition delay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 62
10 Chamber design variables . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
11 Thermal Theory of Burn Rate [5] . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
12 Half cylinder combustion model . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
13 Flame front position for theoretical propellant where a = 0.4 . . . . . . . . 78
14 Flame front position for propellant where a = 0.8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 78
15 Impulse vs burn length for propellant where a = 0.4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
16 Force profile for propellant where a = 0.4 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 79
17 Force profile for propellant where a = 0.8 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
18 Effect of proportional constant on burn time. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 80
19 Effect of pressure exponent on burn rate . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 81
20 Effect of increased heat loss on combustion temperature . . . . . . . . . . . 81
21 Effect of increased heat loss on impulse . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
22 Predicted effect of divergence angle on pressure ratio . . . . . . . . . . . . . 90
23 Predicted effect of divergence angle on thrust at 1500 K, 50 MPa . . . . . . 90
24 Predicted effect of nozzle throat area on pressure ratio . . . . . . . . . . . . 91
25 Predicted effect of nozzle throat area on thrust at 1500 K, 50 MPa . . . . . 91
26 Features of lamination process . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 96
27 Lamination overflow test fixture (units in mm) . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 101
28 New hermes 60W CO laser . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106
2
x