Claims
- 1. A gas generator, comprising:
a catalyst section, said catalyst section including openings through which a material enters and reacts with a catalyst to decompose and to produce heat; and a mixer section downstream of said catalyst section, said mixer section introducing an additional amount of said material; wherein said heat produced in said catalyst section is sufficient to decompose said additional amount of said material without exposure to said catalyst.
- 2. The gas generator as recited in claim 1, wherein said material is hydrogen peroxide.
- 3. The gas generator as recited in claim 1, further comprising a nozzle downstream of said mixer section.
- 4. The gas generator as recited in claim 1, wherein said additional amount also cools said catalyst section.
- 5. A turbopump assembly, comprising:
a catalyst bed for decomposing a material to produce a discharge; a mixer section downstream of said catalyst bed for introducing an additional amount of said material to said discharge to produce an exhaust stream having a mass flow; a nozzle downstream of said mixer section; a turbine downstream of said nozzle; and a pump driven by said turbine; wherein said additional amount of said material is selected to produce a desired amount of said mass flow.
- 6. The turbopump assembly as recited in claim 5, wherein said material is hydrogen peroxide.
- 7. A method of throttling a rocket engine, comprising the steps of:
providing a catalyst bed; introducing an amount of a material into said catalyst bed so that said catalyst bed decomposes said material to produce a discharge; and selectively adding an additional amount of said material into said discharge to produce an exhaust stream having a mass flow; whereby said additional amount of said material increases said mass flow of said exhaust stream.
- 8. The method as recited in claim 7, wherein said exhaust stream drives a turbopump assembly supplying a fuel or an oxidizer to the rocket engine.
- 9. The method as recited in claim 7, wherein said material is hydrogen peroxide.
- 10. The method as recited in claim 7, wherein the selectively adding step decomposes said additional amount of said material.
- 11. The method as recited in claim 10, wherein the selectively adding step thermally decomposes said additional amount of said material.
- 12. The method as recited in claim 7, further comprising a step of cooling said catalyst bed.
- 13. The method as recited in claim 12, wherein the cooling step utilizes said additional amount of said material.
RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application is related to United States Patent Application number (not yet assigned, but Attorney Docket Number F-8074) filed on even date, herein incorporated by reference.