An experimental study on the hypergolic ignition of hydrogen peroxide and ethanolamine

This paper presents the hypergolic ignition test results of a potential environmentally friendly liquid propellant consisting of hydrogen peroxide oxidizer (with a concentration of 85%) and ethanolamine fuel for use in rocket engines. Open cup drop tests were conducted to study the effect of amount of metal salt catalyst in fuel and the initial temperatures of fuel and oxidizer on the ignition delay time. To test the hypergolic ignition of bipropellant formulation in a real rocket engine environment, a pressure-fed liquid propellant rocket engine (LPRE) was designed and developed. During the tests it was found that the amount of catalyst and the initial temperature of the fuel had a significant effect on the ignition delay of hypergolic bipropellant. However, the oxidizer temperature seemed to have almost no affect on the ignition delay. There was also significant difference between the ignition delay times from open cup tests and those from rocket engine static firings. (C) 2010 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.