Initial development of a laboratory rocket thruster for ADN-based liquid monopropellants

Variable thrust enables increased operational range and flexibility. This is of interest for "intelligent" weapons or in other applications where it is desirable to control the thrust. Variable thrust can be obtained by using liquid monopropellants. A number of liquid ADN based monopropellants have previously been developed at FOI. These propellants have the potential to replace current monopropellants hydrazine and hydrogen peroxide. However, in order to use liquid ADN-based monopropellants they must be as easy to ignite as hydrazine and hydrogen peroxide. The purpose of this work was to develop a 100 N laboratory test thruster to study the ignition and combustion of them. To limit the study, a promising liquid ADN-based monopropellant was chosen. The initial results from the thruster firings show that ADN-based monopropellant can be thermally ignited in the combustion chamber.