Spark and Heated Surface Ignition Mechanism Effect on Launch of the Oxygen-Hydrogen Thruster

The study gives the results of research into fuel ignition in the chamber and launch of the thruster operating on gaseous oxygen and hydrogen. We examined the electric spark, laser and hot-tube ignition systems with an igniter in the pre-combustion chamber. We carried out the tests with the engine running in the single-shot and pulse modes with the initial vacuum in the low-pressure chamber. We applied the hot-tube method to determine the influence of the residual pressure in the low-pressure chamber with the engine's intensive impulse operation on the fuel ignition. The experiments show that with electric spark and laser methods, the fuel ignition can occur both in the pre-combustion chamber when both components of the fuel enter it, and downstream from the energy input zone due to the movement of ionized gas to the region with a ignition-favorable concentration of the fuel mixture.

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