| This thesis will review the recent development of a thermally controlled laser diagnostic system used to measure the chemical delay time (CDT) embedded within the ignition delay time (IDT) for hypergolic bipropellant combustion with respect to temperature. Representative fuels included Anhydrous Hydrazine (AH), Mono-Methyl Hydrazine (MMH), Unsymmetrical Di-Methyl Hydrazine (UDMH), and several "green fuels" under development by AMRDEC reacted with red fuming nitric acid (RFNA). An advanced thermal stage has been added to the existing CDT laser diagnostic system which appears to provide kinetic results. The development of the thermal stage for the thermally controlled laser diagnostic system will be described in detail. The results from the preliminary kinetic modeling of the relationship between CDT and temperature typically show an Arrhenius like behavior for many of the pure components tested to date. Methods were developed to correlate the chemical delay time and liquid reaction times, and ultimately produced bulk kinetic data. |
