ESA Open Invitation To Tender AO8400
Open Date: 15/07/2015
Closing Date: 23/09/2015

Status: ISSUED
Reference Nr.: 15.123.05
Prog. Ref.: TRP
Budget Ref.: E/0901-01 – TRP
Special Prov.: BE+DK+FR+DE+IT+NL+ES+SE+CH+GB+IE+AT+NO+FI+PT+GR+LU+CZ+RO+PL
Tender Type: C
Price Range: 200-500 KEURO
Establishment: ESTEC
Directorate: Directorate of Technical & Quality Manag
Department: Mechanical Engineering Department
Division: Propulsion & Aerothermodynamics Division
Contract Officer: Fernandez San Roman, Susana
Last Update Date: 15/07/2015
Update Reason: Tender issue

With respect to waterhammer and priming issues, costly tests are often carried on during the development phase in spacecraft propulsion systems to avoid damage on the thruster valves or on other components downstream the pyrovalves. These tests could be limited or avoided if the simulation tools for waterhammer prediction were as precise for propellants as they are for well-described fluids (water). The Industrial Evaluation carried on during the ESPSS-2 TRP (European Space Propulsion System Simulation) clearly shows thisneed for more accurate propellant properties determination, especially for what concerns waterhammer with real propellants. Moreover, a precise propellant pressure and temperature estimation throughout the mission is of utmost importance for an accurate thrust estimation, and thus for the minimisation of propellant residuals. This points to the need for a good knowledge of density, heat capacity, viscosity and thermal conductivity of the propellants on the whole range of interest for spacecraft propulsion. Finally, a goodknowledge of Helium adsorption properties and of surface tension would be beneficial to the design and analysis of Propellant Management Devices in propellant tanks. Currently, European propulsion designers rely on very few experimental propellant data, mostly based on atmospheric pressure determinations (instead of pressures up to 20 bar, which would be of interest). Most Equations of State rely on the critical properties to estimate the pressure/temperature/density relationships. The most peculiar example of the lack ofmeasurements for propellants is the critical point of Hydrazine. It was measured in 1895 (with some doubts on the measurement accuracyexpressed by the author himself), and this value was quoted acritically since then by any other source found in the literature. Similar lack of accurate data is observed for MMH, UDMH and NTO. For more details, please refer to [1]. In several cases, a better knowledge of propellant properties would have limited or avoided costly test activities with real propellants: waterhammer / priming of spacecraft propellant lines, but also VEGA AVUM fourth stage start-up / shutdown transients, ATV potential injection issues with respect to propellant freezing, etc… Modelling tools would benefit of an increase of reliability of storable propellant properties, and would enable higher confidence in modelling of propulsion systems for both spacecraft and launcher applications. Tasks / Work Logic: 1. Based on the technical requirements from the space applications, on the practical limitations of the thermo-dynamical measurements, and on a thorough literature review, establish the list of thermo-dynamical properties to be measured for real propellants(Hydrazine, MMH, UDMH and NTO) and the associated ranges of pressure and temperature for each property. 2. Measure the thermo-dynamicalproperties associated to real propellants for which no reliable data is found in the open literature. 3. Generate reliable Equations of State based on the previous tasks 4. Run representative test cases for typical spacecraft applications Procurement Policy: C(2) = A relevant participation (in terms of quality and quantity) of non-primes (incl. SMEs) is required. For additional information please go to EMITS news “Industrial Policy measures for non-primes, SMEs and R&D entities in ESA programmes”.

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