investigation and Application of Liquid Ablation in Laser Propulsion
C-Y. Cui, Y-J. Hong, Y-W. Cai, H. Wang and X-Y. L I
It was found that evaporation, thermal-elastic stress wave and cavity were dominant phenomenon in laser-induced ablation propulsion with liquid propellant according to our perceptual knowledge established in relative experiment and by analysis of physical mechanism of laser-induced ablation of liquid. Causation to create thermal-elastic stress wave was introduced. A simple way to estimate the pressure of the stress wave was explained, and a detailed model to calculate thermal field and pressure distribution with its limitations were introduced, too. Cavitations were classified in this paper and characters of three kinds of cavitations were presented. Shape of surface cavity in balance state was obtained by mathematical model with or without considering surface tension. All the research productions of the three main phenomena were sure to accelerate the study of mechanism of laser-induced ablation propulsion with liquid propellant.
Keywords: Laser propulsion, ablation, liquid, evaporation, thermal-elastic stress wave, cavity