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A tubular vaporizing liquid micro-thruster with induction heating

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Abstract

This paper presents a study of a new tubular vaporizing liquid micro-thruster (VLM) with induction heating. The developed micro-thruster consists of a micro-heater core, an excitation coil, a vaporizing chamber, a nozzle and a micro-channel, all integrated in a glass tube with a dimension of 3 mm (outer diameter) × 18 mm (length). The temperature of the micro-heater core is tested with experiments and an optimal AC frequency is selected for the VLM based on the experimental tests. Vaporization of water-propellant feeding with different flow rates range of 0.1 ml/min − 0.3 ml/min is demonstrated. A maximum thrust force of 680 μN at 0.3 ml/min propellant consumption rate is realized measured with a pendulum thrust stand. Comparing with other VLMs, one merit of the new VLM is that there is no physical connection between the micro-heater core and the power supply. Other merits of the new VLM proposed by this paper is that it can work with a larger input power, provide more heat energy and generate a relative larger thrust force.

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Acknowledgements

This work was financially supported by National Innovative Methodology Project of China (No. 2018IM0301004) and Natural Science Foundation of Beijing (No. 3192010).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Electronics Technology, Beijing University of Technology, Beijing, 100124, China

    Bendong Liu, Xu Yang, Yuezong Wang, Desheng Li, Guohua Gao & Jiahui Yang

  2. Beijing Vocational College of Agriculture, Beijing, 102208, China

    Jiahui Yang & Ronghua Zhou

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  1. Bendong Liu
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  2. Xu Yang
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  3. Yuezong Wang
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  4. Desheng Li
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  5. Guohua Gao
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Correspondence to Bendong Liu.

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Liu, B., Yang, X., Wang, Y. et al. A tubular vaporizing liquid micro-thruster with induction heating. Heat Mass Transfer 56, 2035–2043 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00231-020-02836-7

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