Interior Performances of an Impulse Thruster by Numerical Calculation

Impulse thruster is a kind of actuator used for trajectory correction or attitude control of some in-flight munitions and vehicles. A simple mathematical model was set up to model interior characteristics of an impulse thruster. With this model, effects of some key parameters on interior performances of the impulse thruster were studied. Results show that action time is affected significantly by nozzle throat diameter and volume of combustion chamber, while output impulse is sensitive to charge particle diameter and nozzle throat diameter. Through numerical calculation, the ranges of the optimized values for some key parameters were obtained.