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Neutronics Design Study of Nuclear Thermal Rocket using Low Enriched Uranium Fuel

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Last updated: 03 Jan 2025

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Abstract

Recent years have proven that sending humans to Mars may be challenging but not impossible. Earlier tests have proven that nuclear rockets can be more efficient than chemical rockets. In a chemical rocket, the propellant requirements are enormous, which means higher launching costs. This, in turn, will result in a longer trip time. Meanwhile, nuclear rockets have at least twice the propellant efficiency of chemical propulsion systems, allowing a reduction in propellant requirement and launching costs, decreasing the trip time by almost a half, thus, making them more desirable for beyond low earth orbital missions. In this study, a nuclear thermal rocket (NTR) was designed with U235 enrichment of 19.75% to power up the rocket and produce a high specific impulse (Isp) that ranges between 850s-900s. Two different configurations were designed using Monte Carlo code Serpent 2 to test their material performance (including fuel, tie tube, and moderator) under operation. Hence, they put together an optimum configuration to withstand a harsh operating environment to achieve the mission goals. Moreover, temperature analysis was done using MATLAB to extract the power distribution from Serpent 2 to find the average value of the exit temperature for the propellent in addition to the fuel temperature and, thus, perform Isp calculations. The obtained results reflected the ability of the reactor to operate at temperatures as high as 2500 K to deliver a sufficient value of Isp that is equal to 864.15 s, which is a high value compared to any other convention chemical rocket.

DOI

10.21608/ajnsa.2022.95984.1511

Keywords

Nuclear Thermal Rocket, Low Enriched Uranium, Serpent 2, Specific Impulse, Fuel Temperature, Propellant Exit Temperature

Authors

First Name

Asma

Last Name

Alhammadi

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering, University of Sharjah, P.O. BOX 27272, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates

Email

u17104559@sharjah.ac.ae

City

Sharjah

Orcid

-

First Name

Weam

Last Name

Alhoti

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

Department of Mechanical and Nuclear Engineering, University of Sharjah, P.O. BOX 27272, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates

Email

u16103301@sharjah.ac.ae

City

Sharjah

Orcid

-

First Name

Donny

Last Name

Hartanto

MiddleName

-

Affiliation

Department of Mechanical & Nuclear Engineering, University of Sharjah, P.O. BOX 27272, Sharjah, United Arab Emirates

Email

dhartanto@sharjah.ac.ae

City

Sharjah

Orcid

0000-0002-9554-1111

Volume

55

Article Issue

2

Related Issue

29591

Issue Date

2022-04-01

Receive Date

2021-09-14

Publish Date

2022-04-01

Page Start

135

Page End

145

Print ISSN

1110-0451

Online ISSN

2090-4258

Link

https://ajnsa.journals.ekb.eg/article_224900.html

Detail API

https://ajnsa.journals.ekb.eg/service?article_code=224900

Order

14

Type

Original Article

Type Code

455

Publication Type

Journal

Publication Title

Arab Journal of Nuclear Sciences and Applications

Publication Link

https://ajnsa.journals.ekb.eg/

MainTitle

Neutronics Design Study of Nuclear Thermal Rocket using Low Enriched Uranium Fuel

Details

Type

Article

Created At

22 Jan 2023