Experimental Study Of Polyformaldehyde Propellants Seeded With Micron‐Scale Aluminum Powder For Laser Propulsion

The propulsion performance of polyoxymethylene (POM) seeded with micron‐scale aluminum (μAl) powder has been studied experimentally with CO2 lasers. The results show that the momentum coupling coefficient (Cm) and specific impulse (Isp) of POM seeded with μAl powder is almost the same as pure POM at lower power density ( 1⋅7×l06 W/cm2), Cm of POM seeded with μAl powder decreases significantly while Isp increases significantly. When this material is put into a cylindrical nozzle, the measured maximum Cm and Isp can raise to 40.1 dyne/W and 1361 s, respectively. The energy usage ratio is over 100%, which indicates that the aluminum powder may react chemically with the air under the constraint condition. This conclusion was verified experimentally both in atmosphere and vacuum conditions.