Rocket propellant liquid bipropellant

Liquid rocket propellants are subdivided into monopropellants and bipropellants. Monopropellants are liquids which burn in the absence of external oxygen. They have comparatively low energy and specific impulse and are used in small missiles which require low thrust. Hydrazine is currently the most widely used monopropellant however, hydrogen peroxide, ethylene oxide, isopropyl nitrate and nitromethane have all been considered or used as monopropellants. Information on the performance of some monopropellants is presented in Table 8.3. 

Small-orifice injectors are used to atomize and mix the liquid propellants in appropriate proportions. The propellants enter the thrust chamber through the injection manifold and bum inside the thrust chamber. A typical liquid bipropellant rocket engine is shown in Fig. 37.20. 

For liquid rocket propellants, there is a difference between mono and bipropellants. Monopropellants are endothermic liquids (e.g. hydrazine), which decompose exothermically - mainly catalytically (e.g. Shell-405 Ir/Al203) - in the absence of oxygen ... 

Traditionally the liquid systems are considered to be either bipropellants or mono-propellants although as discussed in later sections multicomponent systems are feasible. The most common liquid systems are the bipropellant ones in which the fuel and oxidizer are introduced separately into the rocket combustion chamber. 

Applications. To date, the liquid propellant systems used in chemical propulsion range from a small trajectory control thruster with only 0.2 lbf (0.89 N) thrust for orbital station-keeping to large booster rocket engines with over l. 0 million lbf (4.44 MN) thrust. Bipropellant propulsion systems are the most extensively used type today for... 

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