Attitude control thruster plume flow modeling and experiments

A plume flow model has been developed to calculate the impingement forces and heat transfer caused by the firing of attitude control thrusters on satellites. Its validity for the inviscid core flow was tested and verified by an experimental study including pitot pressure and velocity measurements in plumes with different pure test gases. Measurements in real hydrazine thruster plumes allowed the determination of essential data (especially an effective ratio of specific heats) necessary for the description of this flowfield.