Pressure drop and thrust predictions for transonic micronozzle flows

In this paper, the expansion of xenon, argon, krypton, and neon gases through a Laval nozzle is studied experimentally and numerically. The pressurized gases are accelerated through the nozzle into a vacuum chamber in an attempt to simulate the operating conditions of a cold-gas thruster for attitude control of a micro-satellite. The gases are evaluated at several mass flow rates ranging between 0.178 mg/s and 3.568 mg/s. The Re numbers are low (8–256) and the estimated values of Kn number lie between 0.33 and 0.02 (transition and slip-flow regime). Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) and continuum-based simulations with a no-slip boundary condition are performed. The DSMC and the experimental results show good agreement in the range Kn > 0.1, while the Navier-Stokes results describe the experimental data more accurately for Kn < 0.05. Comparison between the experimental and Navier-Stokes results shows high deviations at the lower mass flow rates and higher Kn numbers. A relation describing the deviation...