Gas acceleration by travelling conduction waves

Abstract

A theory of operation has been derived for a proposed Travelling Conduction Wave accelerator, which predicts that such a device would be capable of operating both as a medium thrust - high specific impulse space propulsion device, with round trip times to Mars of as low as one month, and as a hypersonic wind tunnel capable of simulating conditions over a major portion of the reentry corridor. A simple experiment designed to test this theory resulted in good agreement between the theory and experimental results. Mean gas velocities of 3*4 x 10⁴ m /sec. at an input power of 0.66 Mw have been obtained, corresponding to mean thrusts in the range 0.22 x 10³ to 1*1*10³ N at a mean specific impulse of 3*8 x 10³ sec. and a mean stagnation enthalpy and pressure of 6 x 10⁸J/kg and 4 to 20 atm. respectively. Measured heat losses were low compared to other gas accelerating devices, measured efficiencies lying in the range 70% to 90% . Show more