TECHNOLOGY

Throttling Valves

Variable area cavitating venturi flow control valves for monopropellant and hybrid chemical propulsion technology.

ENABLING

THRUSTER DEEP THROTTLEABILITY

PRECISE

FLUID CONTROL

FLEXIBLE

PROPELLANT AND OPERATIVE RANGE

TECHNOLOGY ADVANTAGES

RELIABLE

The flow to the decomposition or combustion chamber is independent from the downstream pressure resulting in a stable feed and thrust profile decoupled from chamber noise.

PRECISE

The only parameters involved in the fluid control are throat area, upstream pressure, and fluid density. Through valve characterization the throttling valve itself can be used as a flow meter by measuring upstream pressure and pintle stroke enabling open loop precise mass flow and thrust control.

SINERGY

On catalytically decomposed injection rockets engines high throttleability as high as 10:1 can be effortlessly achieved.

LINEAR

With the proper pintle shape a linearity as high as 1% can be achieved further simplifying the control loop.

CUSTOMIZABLE

The valve configuration can be easily customized and adapted to different fluids and operative environments.

Real time throttling test
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TIMELINE

DEVELOPMENT

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2017
Development of the first throttling valve demonstrator for small HTP hybrid rocket motor.
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2018
First hybrid rocket motor throttling test with thrust ratio 5:1 and 800 N maximum thrust.
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2019
Hybrid rocket throttling test with 11:1 throttling ratio and real time throttling capability with a throttle. Recognition by Best Paper Award for Hybrid Propulsion at 2019 AIAA Joint Propulsion Conference.
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2020
Development of a lightweight version of the throttling valve with TRL 5 for ESA funded Thales Alenia Space Italia led Moon Drone program.
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2022
T4i internal R&D of a throttling valve for 10kN class hybrid rocket motor.
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2023
Development of a throttling valve breadboard model for ASI funded and Thales Alenia Space Italia led Mars and Moon Landers program.
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2024
Improvement of the MML valve by reducing weight and increasing dynamic response and reliability.