Safety Technologies for Liquid Hypergolic Propulsion Systems

Hypergolic fuels are the propellant of choice for high performance missile systems. As the demand for them increases, so does the need for assuring the safety of personnel and equipment in their vicinity. These fuels tend to be corrosive, toxic, and present fire hazards if leaks occur. The ultimate objective in this research is to develop a sensor technology which will facilitate safer storage and deployment of liquid hypergolic propulsion systems for missile applications. This Phase I effort will involve a solid polymer electrolyte sensor which has demonstrated the detection of hydrazine at single-digit ppm levels, consumes power in the microwatts, and is physically smaller than a dime. Specific goals of this research are two-fold: 1) Demonstrate with a single sensor the ability to discriminate between calibrated concentrations of MMH and N2O4 oxidizer in a lab environment. Performing accurate discrimination is critical for correctly identifying chemical leaks and classifying the fuels without false alarm. 2) Conduct a comprehensive analysis of various hypergolic systems to identify safety risks, and report anticipated safety improvements the proposed sensor system will offer. Interface characteristics for these systems will be studied and methods for adapting the proposed sensor to those systems will be presented.