Ignition investigations of a novel hypergolic ionic liquid with hydrogen peroxide in drop tests

Abstract

Conventional hypergolic propellants are highly toxic. Therefore, research is conducted in order to find suitable candidates as a replacement for these kinds of propellants. At DLR a promising propellant combination comprised of highly concentrated hydrogen peroxide and an ionic liquid was identified. The used propellant combination showed an ignition delay time in drop tests of around 30 ms. These drop tests were conducted in a drop test setup keeping the test parameters constant. In the present study different external factors, which could have an impact on the ignition delay time were investigated: drop height, propellant amount and fuel or oxidizer as pool component. For fuel as pool component no impact on the ignition delay time was observed when varying the drop heights or propellant amounts. A significant difference was observed between fuel or oxidizer pools. Here, the ignition delay time for oxidizer pools is twice as long as tests with in the fuel pool