Thermal Diffusion Controlled Ignition of Hypergolic Gel Propellants

The present study proposes a simple theoretical model for the hypergolic ignition of gel propellants. The model assumes that the ignition process is governed by the time it takes for the heat wave produced by the reaction to diffuse through the whole droplet, which is described by the classical conduction time constant. The proposed model is based on a prior work by F. A. Williams and is further developed. The results obtained exhibit realistic ignition times in the range of tenths of milliseconds that are in close agreement to those obtained in various experimental works.