Numerical simulation of an additively manufactured mono-propellant Hydrogen Peroxide thruster with trabecular non stochastic catalytic bed structure for space use

Space environment is a field where innovation and technology are crucial, new designs and solutions have to face the never ending trade-off between the fulfilment of strict safety and reliability requirements and the reduction of weight, that leads to an increase of efficiency reducing fuel waste and thus costs, the other sore subject. This challenge leads to the continue research and development of new technologies and materials that allows the realization of lighter and more performing components. At the same time in the last years more and more attention has been put in the reduction of engines and rockets emissions against pollution caused by air transport. This explains why aerospace is always in the first lines in terms of research and development of new technologies to become greener and more affordable. Following this lead, in this work a green propellant and an innovative technology are used to design a 20N mono propellant liquid rocket with trabecular non stochastic catalytic bed. The chosen propellant is high concentration Hydrogen peroxide solution also known as HTP (High Test Peroxide) due to its non-toxicity and lower requirements of safety protection. Additive manufacturing technique allows the realization of the reactor with the integrated trabecular structure without the limitations of the traditional methods. To select the optimal catalytic bed design, several numerical simulations were set and ran, using the CFD software STAR-CCM+. The mesh parameters were carefully chosen after a DOE study and then used for all the simulations. The reaction at issue is the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide, activated and speeded-up by the means of the catalyst Manganese Oxide. An additional study of the kinetics was carried on using the software Aspen. After the optimal design selection, a possible further development of this study is the realization and experimental test of a prototype to validate the model.