Lab Capabilities

Hypergolic Propellant Handling

Schematic of the hypergolic propellants lab (Click for details).

The hypergolics propellant laboratory is a dedicated facility for propellant development and fundamental combustion research
Dedicated ventilation system maintains lower pressure in lab than the control room
Three fume hoods allow for safe, separate storage and study of fuels and oxidizers as well as larger experiments
Positive pressure suits, PPE, and room and personal sensors allow safe experiments with harmful chemicals
Capability for personnel to operate equipment remotely from the control room

Time resolved spectroscopy during a drop test of TEB/WFNA obtained with the streak camera system.

The ROSS 2000 streak camera is an ultrahigh-speed spectroscopic detector capable of:
- Spectral imaging encompassing the UV and Visible ranges from 200-900 nm
- Spectroscopic measurement at time scales applicable to hypergolic reactions
- Sweeps over durations of 300 ns to 30 ms with a temporal resolution < 40 ps
- Simultaneous measurements over a maximum of 180 nm wavelength range

Agilent Cary 680 FTIR system with gladiATR and flow through system installed (Click image for details).

The Agilent Cary 680 FTIR spectrometer is capable of Fourier transform infrared spectroscopy (FTIR) of condensed and gas phase samples
- Spectral range from 9,000-350 cm^-1
- ~110 spectra/second at 16 cm^-1 resolution for kinetics experiments
- Ventilated enclosure allows experiments with toxic materials
Pike GladiATR accessory
- Diamond crystal internal reflection element enables study of corrosive condensed phase samples
- Temperature conditioned (-40 to 100°C) ATR crystal plate
- Liquid flow through attachment for reaction monitoring

The Lambda EZ 301 Spectrometer is designed for UV/Visible spectroscopic analyses of liquid, solid, and gaseous samples
Absorption/transmission measurements over a specific wavelength region:
- Grating sweep speed up to 3600 nm/min
- 1100 to 190 nm in ~30 seconds
Wavelengths can be scanned repeatedly to evaluate changes with respect to time
Can additionally record absorbance or transmittance at a given wavelength as a function of time

The LabRAM Resodyn mixer uses acoustics for rapid and uniform mixing:
- Consistent, complete mixing across batches without contamination of external mixing paddles
- Enclosed mixing containers enable mixing toxic materials with minimal exposure risk
- Rapid mixing in a variety of containers with a 500 g capacity
- Mixes gases, liquids, solids, powders, pellets, viscous liquids, and pastes

Configurable for single droplet or droplet impact studies
Controlled environment:
Optical accessibility to allow for multiple diagnostic techniques
- Variable pressure up to 10 atm
- Variable temperature up to 450 K
- Variable chamber gas composition
- Impact velocities up to 10 m/s

Variable chamber pressure, temperature, and gas composition
Configurable and repeatable injection conditions
- Variable O/F, momentum ratio, injection duration
- Linear actuators provide ~3 ms to steady state commanded injection conditions
- Programmable pulsed mode operation capability
Two combustion chamber configurations
- 360° optically accessible, atmospheric pressure, fused silica chamber
- 250 psia elevated pressure combustion chamber with high frequency pressure measurement
Measured results: Ignition delay and combustion efficiency

Planar Laser Induced Fluorescence (PLIF) imaging of the OH radical at up to 5 kHz
High frequency 3-D imaging with rotating mirror
Measurements on hypergolic droplet characterization and impinging jet systems

Rheometer allows for characterization of Non-Newtonian propellants
- System designed for safe experimentation with toxic propellants
- Remote operation at driving pressures up to 3000 psia
- Controllable shear rate up to 10⁶ 1/s
Measured results: Propellant viscosity, storage/loss modulus, yield stress