Design and characterization of nozzles and solid propellants for IR laser propulsion

CINTHYA TORO; GÓMEZ NICOLÁS; NORBERTO BOGGIO; CODNIA JORGE; AZCÁRATE LAURA; CARLOS RINALDI

Ischia

Congreso; International conference on laser ablation 2013; 2013

In this article, we present an experimental studyof the effect of conical section nozzles coupled to solidtargets on laser ablation propulsion. The impulse producedon the target by laser ablation was measured in terms of thecoupling coefficient Cm using a piezoelectric (PZT) sensor.The standard deviation of the PZT signal was used as anestimator of the transferred impulse. The ablation wasperformed with a TEA CO2 laser at room temperature andatmospheric pressure. The targets were pellets of 90/10 %Zn/CaCO3 concentration ratio. Aluminum nozzleswith conical section were coupled to these propellant pellets.A comparative study of the variation of Cm usingnozzles of different inlet and outlet diameters of the ejectedmaterial as well as of different heights was made. Theresults demonstrate that for the pellet composition analyzed,as the nozzle?s height increases and its diameterdecreases improvements up to 250 % respect to the targetwithout nozzle are obtained. These are promisingresults for the potential development of laser ablationmicrothrusters.