Research Projects

Space technology is changing and growing constantly and the demand for launching small satellites is expected to grow considerably in the coming years. The research focus is looking for more efficient, more reliable, lighter, and less expensive components. Most of a satellite's mass consists of the propellant needed for orbit insertion and attitude control. Improvements in engine efficiency increase the allowable payload in direct proportion to propellant savings. Oxidation-resistant coatings and cooling process are employed to overcome the limitations in combustion chamber development. A typical liquid bi-propellant engine is a disilicide-coated niobium alloy (C-103) chamber employing nitrogen tetroxide (N2O4, or NTO) and mono methyl hydrazine (MMH). In order to keep the wall temperature below the nominal upper use temperature of 1320 °C, 30 to 40 per cent of the fuel is injected as a film along the surface of the combustion chamber. The film cooling process extracts significant penalty in performance. New combustion chamber (thruster) materials should able to withstand higher temperatures and reduce or eliminate fuel film cooling process in the space missions of India. However, combustion chamber performance demands to have exceeded the capabilities of the material system. One approach for improving engine performance is to use a chamber material capable of operating at a higher wall temperature so that the fuel film cooling can be reduced or eliminated. A material system that composed of a Rhenium (Re) substrate and Iridium (Ir) has provided a high-temperature capability for low-thrust chambers. While the state-of-art material system (R512/C103) has a maximum operating temperature of 1370 °C, iridium-coated rhenium (Ir/Re) materials can introduced to operate up to 2200 °C. The materials Ir has adequate melting temperature (2450 °C), good oxidation resistance, close coefficient of thermal expansion to rhenium, ductility, and fabricability into an adherent coating on rhenium. Nowadays, Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) process is currently stands as the most established process for fabricating Ir/Re chambers. In this processes, gaseous precursors of Ir and then Re flow over a heated mandrel and undergo thermal decomposition of the gaseous precursor occurs, which results the deposition of the Ir/Re materials as coatings onto the mandrel. After the Ir and Re layers are deposited in this manner, the mandrel is then chemically removed, leaving a free-standing Ir/Re chamber. Most of the thrust chambers are currently being imported. Hence, there is a huge demand for the development indigenous technology and be the part in Make in India mission. The goal of this mission is to develop a thrust or combustion chamber with oxidation resistant Ir-Re coatings. The performance of indigenously developed chambers will also be validated using association with ISRO and industry.