Experimental testing of a number of novel additively manufactured monopropellant microthrusters was conducted under atmospheric conditions using 87.5% concentration hydrogen peroxide. The aim of this work was to select a specific catalyst bed geometry for the thruster system and to investigate more general methodologies for monopropellant packed catalyst bed optimization. Characteristic velocity efficiencies approaching 0.98 were demonstrated, and performance improved for smaller beds with low aspect ratios; although, these beds flooded at lower propellant flow rates. The onset of bed flooding was used to identify physical limits of propellant flow rate supported by the catalyst. The particular propellant–catalyst pairing limit was defined by a Damköhler number of 56, independent of the bed geometry, with thermal performance peaking for the high flow rates just before flooding occurred. It is suggested that this method is extensible to other monopropellant systems, although with further work required to confirm it is a more general effect beyond thrusters using hydrogen peroxide.

在大气条件下使用 87.5% 浓度的过氧化氢对许多新型增材制造的单推进剂微型推进器进行了实验测试。这项工作的目的是为推进器系统选择特定的催化剂床几何形状，并研究用于单推进剂填充催化剂床优化的更通用方法。展示了接近 0.98 的特征速度效率，并且对于具有低纵横比的较小床提高了性能；尽管如此，这些床在较低的推进剂流速下被淹没。床泛滥的开始用于确定催化剂支持的推进剂流速的物理极限。特定的推进剂 - 催化剂配对限制由 56 的 Damköhler 数定义，与床几何形状无关，就在洪水发生之前，高流速的热性能达到峰值。建议这种方法可扩展到其他单组元推进剂系统，尽管需要进一步的工作来确认它是使用过氧化氢的推进器之外的更普遍的效果。