eLECTROTHERMAL ACCELERATION a ‘This concept regards the heat of vaporization of the lid as an available thermal degree of freedom, and thusappearsto he restricted to low-pressure operation. ‘The final selection of an electrothermal propellant will memally be ‘based primacily on specific impulse and frogen fow considerations in the ‘signed range of operation, but ths ehoice may be modified somevhat by broader considerations of the overall system performance, e., propellant storog feed, deterioration, eto,, on the pertioular mission involved. ‘This section has dealt in some generality with the frozen flow loss because ofits fundamental import on all electrothermal thrusters. More specific details of this loss and of the heater snd noaale losses will be caverad in the discussions of particular types of thrusters to follow. 64 RESISTOUETS ‘The simplest of all eleotrie propulsion dovieos is the resistojet, wherein the propellant gas is heated by passing it over an electrically heated eolid surface, Many configurations of resistojete have heen eoneeived and developed, and some versions have evolved to the status of practical spane thrusters. Heater elements have been constructed of coils of wire aligned parallel to the flow (Pig. 6-5a), of a suecession of similar coils deployed transversely to the low (Fig. 6-52), of a bed of tungsten spheres heated by passing current through their contact resistance (Fig. 6-5), and of contiguous knife-edges or sharp pointe carrying the heating current trough similar contact resistance (Fig. 6-5d), or the heating-chamber walls themselves have been resistively heated (Fig. 6-5¢). ‘These devices have been run radiatively or regeneratively eooled, on ae or de supplies, at power levels from a fraction of 1 watt to 00 kw, over a broad range of terminal voltage. Many propellant guses have been tried, both in steady and in pulsed flow. In addition to the frozen flow losses discussed above, the basie problems in tho development of resistojet concom the heat transfer from the resistance element to gos stream, the radiation losses from the complete assembly, and the high-temperature materials technology Analysis of the first two may be approached by classical heat transfer techniques, but tend to become cumbersome in the geometries and tem perature ranges involved in these devices. Since the low in the chamber is usually laminar, the heat transfer to the Auid stream is primarily by conduction, and closed-form solutions for simple geometries would be Possible if the gas low were calorically ideal. Unfortunately, the specific heat, thermal conductivity, and gas density, all vary substantially with temperature in the range considered; hence iterative or similar procedures are required to achieve self-consistent solutions {11}. Actually, detailedoe ELECTRICAL ACCELERATION OF axSES WO: Fig. 65 Ratlateot ne 1 contgurations solutions of the gasdynamic heat transfer problem are seldom critical to implementation of a particular resistojet concept. Generally, 2 few experimental surveys using the desired propellants with various heater and chamber dimensions will load rather directly to en adequate optimiza tion of the geometry and bulk flow parameters for a given device, without the necessity for detailed understanding of the heat transfer pattera, A similar situation prevails with respect to the thermal radiation losses from resistojets. In principle, these detract from the performance of the device to an extent which ean be ealeulated from basie elements of radiant heat transfer. In practice, empirieal common sense normally will suffice to design and eonetruct a configuration wherein these losces are reduced to comparative unimportance to the averall system. For exam- ple, the active heat transfer duct may be surrounded with insulation oF reentrant gas flow passages, or both, to a suflicient extent so that negligi- ble heat is radinted from the body of the composite thruster (Fig. 6-6)BLECTROTHERAAL ACCELERATION ws a ar SSS [=> » Fig. 66 Thermal insulation of resistoots (a) by reentiant flow passages: (2) ‘by part tow passages. (12). Alternatively, many heater duets may be Ronoyeombed in parallel, and the array surrounded with insulation (Fig. 6-06). Such eavalier solu- tions to the radiation problem are permissible simply because the total ‘weight of this type of thruster is by nature a trivial fraetion of that af the power supply needed to drive it. Even after sueh insulation proeedures, there remains some unavoidable radiation out of the nozale mouth from the hot propellant gas, heater eavity, and nozale throat. This loss will depend on the limiting optical aperture, i.e, the nozzle throat, and this is invariably a small fraction of the chamber dimension, A major portion of the resistojet development effort is eoncemned. with practical problems of preparing, fabricating, and maintaining the high-temperature conductor and insulator materials whieh must retainvacuum seals and electrical integrity in the 2500-t0-3000°K environment desired, Ivis found, for example, that s tungsten conductor and s boron nitride insulator, both acceptably stable by themselves at 3000°K, when placed in contact tend to form a eutectic compound of substantially lower melting point. This and similar problems with the thermal ogradation of the heater elements emphasize that the resistojet is truly 8 temperature-limited device and that substantial improvements in its level of operation could follow from the development of superior high- ‘temperature materials ‘The choice of chamber pressure for w given resistojet may be an important factor in its overall efficiency, and is determined by balancing several factors. As we have seen, operation at high pressures reduces frozen flow losses by lowering the dissociation level in the chamber and increasing recombination rates in the nozzle, In addition, it improves heat transfer to the flow from the heater surfaces, reduces radiation losses by increasing the optical depth of the hot gus, and permits a smaller chamber and nozzle for a given mass flow. Counterscting these advan- tages are the increased stress on the hot chamber walls snd the increased nozzle throct erosion. The latter process has frequently’ been found to be the limiting factor on the lifetime of a thruster of this type. With the present heater concepts, the best operational compromise seems to lie in the range of 1 to 5 atm of chamber pressure. Figures6-7 to6-11 display photographs of various resistojet thrusters, ‘and Table 6-2 summarizes some typies) performance characteristics, 1 isseen that those admirably simple devices have already achieved excellent Tobie 62 Pevtormanee af tical resin trates Topt per iw Joo [uo fa0 ao fia [sno Popes NH, [ih Hy fy [Ny | Heer sonigee- |Sinle [Concer | Conse: | Trane | Convene | Consens ion J'tabe [trio | tre | verse | trie | trie | contact | tates | Gein) | contact | contact Tort, nentons ax 10~foazs” Joss josst |2a Jens Spesgc impale aee|260 "(720° [ao [sae fas [aae ‘Thrust eficieney joss joss jore jos 088 Chamber preseure, | | | 0 os iso fas faa ite aa Taboretory AWC. | Giants Mer [ACO | Glan | Saanink quards | Te = Plau/BP; neglete cok Aow power, souncas: RJ. Page et al, 2-kw Concentric Tubular Resstoet Performance, J. Space- ‘erat Hockte, vel. 3, p. 1860, 1906; A. C. Ducati, E. Muchiberger, and J. P. Todd, Rosistenceshesod Thruster Roseareh, Gionnini Seentie Corp. Tech. Rel. ABAPL: ‘TR-66-71, July, 1985; and private communications