Research on aerodynamic drag of a solid attitude control thruster based on PWM principle

Abstract

Solid attitude control thrusters based on PWM principle are widely used in kinetic kill vehicle to control its attitude. In this paper, a kind of solid attitude control thruster is proposed and its piston’s motion model is established. One of the most important variables which has significant effect on the validity of the model is aerodynamic drag of rocker arm. We did research on the aerodynamic drag by throttle theory, numerical simulation and experiment. The results were consistent and proved to be valid by testing the pressure in the two control chambers. The result is expected to provide reference for the calculation and test of the aerodynamic drag and design of the solid attitude control.