• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.35 no.12
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• pp.1115-1120
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• 2007

This paper presents a novel mechanism of electro-spray micro-thruster featured by a nozzle with a conductive pole inside, referred to here as a pole type nozzle. And the effects of the pole type nozzle on the efficiency of the jetting are numerically and experimentally investigated. The electric voltage signal applied to the upper electrode plate, against the pole as the ground, allows a ejection of spray to take place. It is verified experimentally that the use of the pole type nozzle allows a stable and sustainable jetting mode of ejection for a wider range of applied voltages because it can concentrate the electric field more on the centre of the meniscus. According to results about size effect, experiments indicates that the proposed mechanism allows that operation of micro thruster at less than 500 volts through nanoscale nozzle.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.17 no.6
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• pp.30-37
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• 2013

A ground hot-firing test was conducted to take out the optimal design configurations for the catalyst bed of liquid-monopropellant hydrazine thruster which could be used for primary engine or attitude control thruster of space vehicles. Performance characteristics with the variation of thrust-chamber length are investigated in terms of thrust, specific impulse, chamber pressure, characteristic velocity, and hydrazine decomposition rate. Additionally, the correlations between propellant-supply pressure and performance parameters are given. As results, increase of catalyst-bed length leads to performance degradation in this test condition, and also decreases propellant consumption efficiency with the supply pressure variation.

• Journal of computational fluids engineering
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• v.21 no.2
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• pp.112-119
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• 2016

NEXTSat-1 is the next-generation small-size artificial satellite system planed by the Satellite Technology Research Center(SatTReC) in Korea Advanced Institute of Science and Technology(KAIST). For the control of attitude and transition of the orbit, the system has adopted a RHM(Resisto-jet Head Module), which has a very simple geometry with a reasonable efficiency. An axisymmetric model is devised with two coil-resistance heaters using xenon(Xe) gas, and the minimum required specific impulse is 60 seconds under the thrust more than 30 milli-Newton. To design the module, seven basic parameters should be decided: the nozzle shape, the power distribution of heater, the pressure drop of filter, the diameter of nozzle throat, the slant length and the angle of nozzle, and the size of reservoir, etc. After quasi one-dimensional analysis, a theoretical value of specific impulse is calculated, and the optima of parameters are found out from the baseline with a series of multi-physical numerical simulations based on the compressible Navier-Stokes equations for gas and the heat conduction energy equation for solid. A commercial code, COMSOL Multiphysics is used for the computation with a FEM (finite element method) based numerical scheme. The final values of design parameters indicate 5.8% better performance than those of baseline design after the verification with all the tuned parameters. The present method should be effective to reduce the time cost of trial and error in the development of RHM, the thruster of NEXTSat-1.

• Journal of the Society of Naval Architects of Korea
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• v.55 no.3
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• pp.196-204
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• 2018

Present paper shows the basic design procedure for platform support vessel operating in open sea, and hull form development process. General design concept considering the operating mission, operating sea condition and shipping freight, etc. is explained shortly. For the hull form design, the initial hull form was designed based on the reference PSVs. The resistance and propulsion test results for the initial hull form with twin Azimuth thruster were analyzed and a few items for improvement were derived. At the next stage, main parameters including Length, Cp-curve, Cb, Lcb, etc. were changed totally for the hull form improvement. Furthermore, 3 different bulbous bows for the fore-body design to reduce the wave resistance and after-body design to reduce the residual resistance were carried out. The best hull form among the 3 fore-bodies with same after-body was selected through the comparison of wave resistance calculation results. Twin ducted Azimuth thruster with the smaller propeller diameter than the former were adapted to increase the propulsive efficiency. The final hull form with the twin Azimuth thruster was evaluated to satisfy more than the target design speed 14 knots in sea condition with sea margin 15% at the 5,000kW BHP through the model test in KRISO.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.25 no.5
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• pp.65-72
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• 2021

700 W class laboratory model Hall thruster, which can be used for the orbit control or station keeping of small satellites, was developed. The size of the discharge channel was determined using a scaling law, and the magnetic field was designed to be symmetric with respect to the midline of the discharge channel and to be maximized outside the discharge channel. Base pressure of a vacuum chamber was maintained below 2.0×10^-5 Torr during experiments, and the thrust was measured by a thrust stand. The anode flow rate and coil current were varied with the fixed anode voltage at 300 V. Under the operation condition at 2.36 mg/s anode flow rate and 2.4 A coil current, performance was optimized as 38 mN thrust, 1,540 s total specific impulse, and 50 % anode efficiency at 620 W anode power.

• Journal of Energy Engineering
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• v.2 no.1
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• pp.38-44
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• 1993

Electromagnetic seawater thrusters may be classified into four general categories : internal duct dc, external field dc, internal peristaltic ac, and external peristaltic ac. Internal duct dc thrusters offer the advantages of low magnetic field leakage, simple construction, and potentially high reliability. The most efficient internal duct configuration consists of converging inlet nozzle and a straight discharge duct. Ideal efficiency calculations based on the one-dimensional Bernoulli equation show that thrusters should be designed with large cross-sectional areas and operate at low discharge velocities. In practice, this may be accomplished by using multiple thruster ducts. Conductivity enhancement, high magnetic fields, and long electrodes will also improve efficiency.

• International Journal of Aeronautical and Space Sciences
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• v.18 no.3
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• pp.512-521
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• 2017

This paper reports development process of a university-based sounding rocket using simplified hybrid rocket propulsion system for low-altitude flight application. A hybrid propulsion system was tried to be designed with as few components as possible for more economical, simpler and safer propulsion system, which is essential for the small scale sounding rocket operation as a CanSat carrier. Using blow-down feeding system and catalytic ignition as combustion starter, 250 N class hybrid rocket system was composed of three components: a composite tank, valves, and a thruster. With a composite tank filled with both hydrogen peroxide($H_2O_2$) as an oxidizer and nitrogen gas($N_2$) as a pressurant, the feeding pressure was operated in blowdown mode during thruster operation. The $MnO_2/Al_2O_3$ catalyst was fabricated for propellant decomposition, and ground test of propulsion system showed the almost theoretical temperature of decomposed $H_2O_2$ at the catalyst reactor, indicating sufficient catalyst efficiency for propellant decomposition. Auto-ignition of the high density polyethylene(HDPE) fuel grain successfully occurred by the decomposed $H_2O_2$ product without additional installation of any ignition devices. Performance test result was well matched with numerical internal ballistics conducted prior to the experimental propulsion system ground test. A sounding rocket using the developed hybrid rocket was designed, fabricated, flight simulated and launch tested. Six degree-of-freedom trajectory estimation code was developed and the comparison result between expected and experimental trajectory validated the accuracy of the developed trajectory estimation code. The fabricated sounding rocket was successfully launched showing the effectiveness of the simplified hybrid rocket propulsion system.

• Journal of the Korean Society for Aeronautical & Space Sciences
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• v.41 no.4
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• pp.299-304
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• 2013

The HAN which is an ionic liquid is a non-toxic monopropellant with high storability, and its specific impulse can be increased by blending methanol, thereby it can substitute the hydrazine. The HAN was synthesized by acid-base reaction of hydroxylamine and nitric acid, and the blending ratio of HAN and methanol is 8.2:1. The iridium catalyst was used to decompose the HAN, and 1 N class thruster with shower head type injector having one orifice was used to evaluate the HAN/Methanol propellant. The thermal stability of distributor was increased by using ceramic material to endure the high temperature of product gas. The preheating temperature of catalyst should be $400^{\circ}C$ at least for the complete decomposition. The feeding pressure should be increased to increase the $C^*$ efficiency, thereby the decomposition performance was decreased upstream catalyst, and the performance of thruster was decreased. The fine metal mesh was inserted after the injector to improve the atomization of propellant, thereby it can settle the performance decrease problem. The phenomenon of performance decrease was remarkably improved owing to the insertion of fine metal mesh.

• The Journal of Korea Robotics Society
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• v.13 no.2
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• pp.103-112
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• 2018

In this paper, a high performance underwater vehicle which can be manufactured at low cost is designed and fabricated, and its performance is verified through experiments. To improve efficiency, the Myring equation is used to design the appearance and the duct structure including the thruster is planned to increase the propulsion efficiency while reducing the drag force. Through various methods, it is secured stable waterproof performance, and also is devised to have high speed movement and turning performance. The developed underwater vehicle is equipped with a high output BLDC motor to achieve a linear speed of up to 2 m/s and can change direction rapidly with stability through four rudders. The rudders are driven by coupling a timing belt and a pulley by extending the axis of a servo motor, and are equipped at the end of the body to turn heading. In addition, for stable posture control, the roll keeps its internal center of gravity low and maintains its stability due to restoring force. By controlling the four rudders, pitch and yaw are handled by the PID controller and show stable performance. To investigate the horizontal turning performance, it is confirmed that the yaw rate controller is designed and stable yaw rate control is performed.

• Journal of Ocean Engineering and Technology
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• v.26 no.6
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• pp.39-45
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• 2012

Underwater robots are generally used for the construction of seabed structures, deep-sea ecosystem research, ocean energy development, etc. A ducted marine propulsor is widely used for the thruster of an underwater robot because of its collision protection, efficiency increase, cavitation reduction, etc. However, the flow of a ducted propeller is very complex because it involves strong flow interactions between the blade impeller and duct. The present work aimed to design a ducted propeller using 2-D strip theory and CFD analysis. The hydrodynamic forces (i.e. and ) were computed to set the local angle of attack in a spanwise direction of the propeller blade. After the propeller design, performance coefficients such as the thrust, torque, and efficiency were computed to check whether the designed performance was achieved. To validate the present analysis, the thrust was compared with experimental data and good agreement was obtained.