Arcing on Aluminum Anodized Plates Immersed in Low-Density Plasmas

Vayner, Boris; Doreswamy, C. V.; Ferguson, Dale C.; Galofaro, Joel; Snyder, D.

doi:10.2514/2.3403

Cited by 14 publications

(4 citation statements)

References 18 publications

(7 reference statements)

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…Combination -could a change of spacecraft ground potential from a surface charging ESD have triggered a deep-dielectric discharge underneath an MLI blanket? Such so-called sympathetic arcs were found by Vayner et al 22 on anodized aluminum in laboratory simulations of spacecraft charging.…”

Section: Esd Possibilities For Anomalymentioning

confidence: 60%

Plasma Conditions During the Galaxy 15 Anomaly and the Possibility of ESD from Subsurface Charging

Ferguson

Denig

Rodriguez

2011

49th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting Including the New Horizons Forum and Aerospace Exposition

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Public reporting burden for this collection of information is estimated to average 1 hour per response, including the time for reviewing instructions, searching existing data sources, gathering and maintaining the data needed, and completing and reviewing this collection of information. Send comments regarding this burden estimate or any other aspect of this collection of information, including suggestions for reducing this burden to Department of Defense, Washington Headquarters Services, Directorate for Information Operations and Reports (0704-0188), 1215 Jefferson Davis Highway, Suite 1204, Arlington, VA 22202-4302. Respondents should be aware that notwithstanding any other provision of law, no person shall be subject to any penalty for failing to comply with a collection of information if it does not display a currently valid OMB control number. PLEASE DO NOT RETURN YOUR FORM TO THE ABOVE ADDRESS.

show abstract

Section: Esd Possibilities For Anomalymentioning

confidence: 60%

Plasma Conditions During the Galaxy 15 Anomaly and the Possibility of ESD from Subsurface Charging

Ferguson

Denig

Rodriguez

2011

49th AIAA Aerospace Sciences Meeting Including the New Horizons Forum and Aerospace Exposition

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…Micro-arcing has been studied in space plasmas, and the publications relevant to this topic include those of Cho et al in the NASA Research Centre and relate to experience obtained from space shuttles, satellites or rockets [8][9][10] travelling in low earth orbit. Micro-arcing frequently occurs on parts exposed to the ionosphere environment, causing either local destructive damage or interference with electronic circuits.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Micro-arcing in radio frequency plasmas

Yin¹,

Bilek²,

McKenzie³

et al. 2004

J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Micro-arcing and breakdown of the wall plasma sheath in radio frequency (RF) plasmas is studied in a hollow cathode system, using a Langmuir probe to measure the floating potential. Micro-arcing was induced reproducibly by controlling the floating potential. By dc grounding the hollow cathode, a negative current can flow to ground resulting in a higher voltage sheath between the plasma and the earthed vacuum vessel. The wall arcing threshold of the plasma potential in this system is in the vicinity of 50 V. In the present system, the charging process to rebuild the plasma potential, which is about a few tens of milliseconds, is much slower than the microsecond discharge. The arcing frequency was found to depend strongly on the plasma potential and the pressure. We propose a mechanism for the dependence of the frequency of periodic micro-arcing based on the development of electron field emission sites. The measurement of floating potential is suggested as a useful parameter to monitor and prevent micro-arcing in RF plasmas.

show abstract

“…In similar experiments, it is reported that an electrical resistivity of the coating layer decreased with increasing initialcharging voltage [16], [17]. This could be explained from concentration of electric field in an arc spot besides the effect of contamination on the surface.…”

Section: B Repetitive-arcing Characteristicsmentioning

confidence: 74%

Ground-Based Experiment of Electric Breakdown of Spacecraft Surface Insulator in an Ambient Plasma Environment

Tahara

Masuyama

2006

IEEE Trans. Plasma Sci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

In the future, LEO spacecraft will be larger and higher powered. Because of the balance of the leakage currents through the ambient space plasma, their main conductive body will have a higher negative potential without plasma contactor operation. When the spacecraft operates with a higher voltage, more intensive arcing is suspected to occur on the surface. In this study, a ground-based experiment was carried out to understand the arcing phenomenon and to examine the influences of the ambient space plasma on the arcing process. Simulating plasmas were generated by electron-cyclotron-resonance discharge. When arcing occurred on negatively biased anodized-aluminum-sample (AAS) plates in the plasma environment, the time variations in the arc current and bias voltage were measured. The arc-spot diameter was also measured. The single-arcing characteristics showed that both the peak arc current and the total charge emitted by arcing increased with the initial-charging voltage and neutralparticle number density. The diameter of the arc spot increased with the initial-charging voltage although it was almost constant regardless of the neutral-particle density. The repetitive-arcing characteristics showed that the arc rate gradually increased with the arcing number. Lots of overlapping arc spot were observed after 1000 arcings, and its number increased with the arcing number. The influences of the initial-charging energy on arcing characteristics were also examined by widely changing the capacitance and the initial-charging voltage. The arc-spot diameter intensively increased with the initial-charging energy, and the fitting line could be evaluated. Accordingly, a high-voltage operation of the LEO spacecraft might bring a drastic degradation of AAS by arcing, depending on the ambient plasma conditions and spacecraft capacitance.Index Terms-Anodized aluminum, arc plasma, arc spot, discharge characteristics, electric breakdown, ground-based experiment, insulator surface, spacecraft environment, space-plasma environment.

show abstract

Arcing on Aluminum Anodized Plates Immersed in Low-Density Plasmas

Cited by 14 publications

References 18 publications

Plasma Conditions During the Galaxy 15 Anomaly and the Possibility of ESD from Subsurface Charging

Plasma Conditions During the Galaxy 15 Anomaly and the Possibility of ESD from Subsurface Charging

Micro-arcing in radio frequency plasmas

Ground-Based Experiment of Electric Breakdown of Spacecraft Surface Insulator in an Ambient Plasma Environment

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About