Transient heat transfer and gas flow in a MEMS-based thruster

Author

Alexeenko, Alina A. ; Fedosov, Dmitry A. ; Gimelshein, Sergey F. ; Levin, Deborah A. ; Collins, Robert J.

Author_Institution

Univ. Park, Pennsylvania State Univ., University Park, PA, USA

Volume

15

Issue

1

fYear

2006

Firstpage

181

Lastpage

194

Abstract

Time-dependent performance of a high-temperature MEMS-based thruster is studied in detail by a coupled thermal-fluid analysis. The material thermal response governed by the transient heat conduction equation is obtained using the finite element method. The low-Reynolds number gas flow in the microthruster is modeled by the direct simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC) approach. The temporal variation of the thruster material temperature and gas flowfields are obtained as well as the thruster operational time limits for thermally insulated and convectively cooled thrusters. The predicted thrust and mass discharge coefficient of both two-dimensional (2-D) and three-dimensional (3-D) micronozzles decreases in time as the viscous losses increase for higher wall temperatures.

Keywords

Monte Carlo methods; aerospace propulsion; finite element analysis; heat conduction; microchannel flow; MEMS-based thruster; coupled thermal-fluid analysis; direct simulation Monte Carlo; finite element method; fluid flow; gas flow; kinetic methods; mass discharge coefficient; material temperature; microfluidics; micronozzles; microthruster; semiconductor device; space vehicle propulsion; thermal response; transient heat conduction equation; transient heat transfer; Conducting materials; Equations; Finite element methods; Fluid flow; Gas insulation; Heat transfer; Monte Carlo methods; Performance analysis; Temperature; Thermal conductivity; Fluid flow; kinetic methods; microfluidics; semiconductor device; space vehicle propulsion;

fLanguage

English

Journal_Title

Microelectromechanical Systems, Journal of

Publisher

ieee

ISSN

1057-7157

Type

jour

DOI

10.1109/JMEMS.2005.859203

Filename

1588920