• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2004.03a
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• pp.617-621
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• 2004

Miniaturization of subsystems including propulsion systems is recent trends in spacecraft technology. Small space vehicle propulsion is not only a technological challenge of a scaling system down, but also a combination of fundamental flow/combustion constraints. In this paper, physical constraints of micronozzle for cold gas micro-thruster are reviewed and discussed. Method to measure small thrust are also described.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.5 no.3
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• pp.100-107
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• 2001

Miro propulsion device is a literally very small propulsion system The reason why such a small propulsion system is required is that micro satellites are considered as substitutions for conventional satellites to reduce cost; the fabrication of micro satellites enables us to produce mass production Microrockets have relatively high values of thrust/weight ratio due to the cube law; weight is proportional to volume and thrust is proportional to area. Accordingly, downsizing makes the ratio of thrust/weight ratio high However, conventionally ignorable facts are not negligible any more in small scale systems. for chemical micro rockets, downsizing causes lots of heat loss as surface to volume ratio increases, which results in the destruction of radical ions. For thrusters using plasma, the generation of strong magnetic field for plasma is very difficult. Also, in the aspect of flow dynamics, the effects of drag and viscosity are important parameters in low Re flows. When these problems are solved, micro propulsion systems can be commercialized and result in spin-off effects in many fields.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2007.04a
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• pp.25-29
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• 2007

Minimization of conventional propulsion device has been studied for altitude control of micro satellite. We studied micro nozzle performance and found higher significant loss for a micro nozzle with smaller nozzle throat diameter. To overcome this loss, we proposed thermal transpiration based micro propulsion system. This new system has no moving parts and can control flow by temperature gradient, and this can be an option for potential new micro propulsion system.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2008.03a
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• pp.866-870
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• 2008

In this study, we designed cold gas propulsion system with minimum 0.25 mm nozzle and micro-thrust measurement system to analyze flow characteristic of micro propulsion system in ambient and vacuum condition. Argon and Nitrogen are used for propellant and the result of experiments is compared with CFD analysis and theory. But there is a point where reduced scale versions of conventional propulsion systems will no longer be practical. Therefore, a fundamentally different approach to propulsion systems was taken. That is thermal transpiration based micro propulsion system. It has no moving parts such as lubricants, pressurizing system and can pump the gaseous propellant by temperature gradient only(cold to hot). We are advancing basic research of propulsion system based on thermal transpiration in vacuum conditions and had tried experiment process and theoretical access in advance. To characterize membrane of Knudsen pump, we select Polyimide material that has low thermal conductivity(0.29 W/mK) and can stand high temperature($300^{\circ}C$) for long time. And we fabricated hole diameter 1, 0.5, 0.2, 0.1 mm using precision manufacturing. Experimental results show that pressure gradient efficiency of Knudsen pump is increased to maximum 82% according to Knudsen number and thick membranes are more effective than thin membranes in transition flow regime.

• 한국전산유체공학회:학술대회논문집
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• 2008.03b
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• pp.405-408
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• 2008

From the previous researches about flow characteristic of micro-nozzle, we found that viscosity and back pressure induced heavy losses in micro nozzle. To overcome thess losses, we began to study new conceptual micro propulsion system that is thermal transpiration based micro propulsion system. It has no moving parts and can pump the gaseous propellant by temperature gradient only (cold to hot). Most of previous research on thermal transpiration is in its early stage and mainly studied for application to small vacuum facility or gas chromatography in ambient condition using nanoporous material like aerogel. In this study, we focus on basic research of propulsion system based on thermal transpiration using polyimide material in vacuum conditions.

• Journal of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers
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• v.11 no.6
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• pp.42-49
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• 2007

In this study, we analyzed flow characteristics of micro-nozzles for basic research to develop micro propulsion system. Cold gas propulsion system was used, and micro-nozzles having nozzle throat diameters of 1.0, 0.5, 0.25 mm were fabricated with EDM method. Thrust was measured through the use of plate-spring and strain gage based thrust measurement system, and flow characteristics of micro-nozzles were analyzed under ambient condition and vacuum condition. We used argon and nitrogen gases as propellant, and compared experimental results with CFD analysis. From the result, we verified the flow losses of viscosity and back-pressure caused by minimization of nozzle.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• v.y2005m4
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• pp.381-385
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• 2005

Recently, spacecraft technology trends can be expressed three words, i.e. 'faster, cheaper and smaller'. Among these systems, micro propulsion device is an essential component. Also micro nozzle is the most important part in the micro propulsion device. In case of cold-gas thruster, micro nozzle converts the stored energy in a pressurized gas into kinetic energy through expansion ratio. In this paper we report characteristics of micro nozzle with throat expansion ratio and ratio of specific heats. We measure thrusts using strain gauge based thrust measurement system. We can estimate the micro nozzle performance through experiments.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2007.11a
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• pp.76-79
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• 2007

From the previous researches about flow characteristic of micro-nozzle， we found that viscosity and back pressure induced heavy losses in micro nozzle. To overcome thess losses, we began to study new conceptual micro propulsion system that is thermal transpiration based micro propulsion system. It has no moving parts and can pump the gaseous propellant by temperature gradient only (cold to hot). Most of previous research on thermal transpiration is in its early stage and mainly studied for application to small vacuum facility or gas chromatography in ambient condition using nanoporous material like aerogel. In this study, we focus on basic research of propulsion system based on thermal transpiration using polyimide material in vacuum conditions.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2012.05a
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• pp.309-317
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• 2012

Recent years have witnessed the use of micro shock tube in various engineering applications like micro combustion, micro propulsion, particle delivery systems etc. The flow characteristics occurring in the micro shock tube shows a considerable deviation from that of well established conventional macro shock tube due to very low Reynolds number and high Knudsen number effects. Also the diaphragm rupture process, which is considered to be instantaneous process in many of the conventional shock tubes, will be crucial for micro shock tubes in determining the near diaphragm flow field and shock formation. In the present study, an axi-symmetric CFD method has been applied to simulate the micro shock tube, with Maxwell's slip velocity and temperature jump boundary conditions. The effects of finite diaphragm rupture process on the flow field and the shock formation was investigated, in detail. The results show that the shock strength attenuates rapidly as it propagates through micro shock tubes.

• Proceedings of the Korean Society of Propulsion Engineers Conference
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• 2004.03a
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• pp.601-604
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• 2004

Precise position and attitude control of pico-satellite requires huge number of impulses of the order of 10$^{-6}$ Ns. MEMS solid rocket array is a promising propulsion system but the higher degree of miniaturization causes unreliable operation mainly due to quenching. In order to breakthrough this situation, a novel design of solid micro-rocket is proposed, which generates tiny impulses repetitively from a single rocket not from array. This unique micro-rocket is based on the utilization of quenching, which causes propellant reaction to sustain only in a small area. A test chip of a micro solid propellant tank and micro heater array is fabricated and ignition test is conducted. Obtained results show the feasibility of this concept and future direction of this quenching-based propulsion is discussed.