Comprehensive Review of Planar Pulsed Inductive Plasma Thruster Research and Technology

Polzin, Kurt A.

doi:10.2514/1.b34188

Cited by 65 publications

(49 citation statements)

References 35 publications

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“…The experimental observation reveals the importance of first half period on the performance . The results here confirm the finding and, furthermore, the calculations find that the main ionization and acceleration occur before the sheet reaches the decoupling distance.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 86%

“…Electrostatic thrusters, such as the ion thruster, suffer from the corrosion of the electrode or the acceleration grid, leading to limited lifetimes. To avoid this, one promising substitution is the inductive pulsed plasma thruster (IPPT), which is categorized as an electromagnetic thruster. The neutral gas is ionized by the transient electric field generated by the pulsed current flowing through the inductive coil and is accelerated by Lorentz force.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Numerical simulation on the operational characteristics of the pulsed inductive acceleration

Cheng

Xia

2018

Contributions to Plasma Physics

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To analyse the ionization and acceleration properties of an inductive plasma excited by a pulsed current flowing through the planar coil, the extended GLM formulations of the MHD (EGLM-MHD) model, combined with the high-temperature thermodynamic and transport model, is employed to simulate the characteristics of the flow. The two-dimensional axisymmetric calculation captures the generation, growth, and acceleration of the current sheet, and the process is completed in the first half period. The sheet is mainly comprised of lower ionization level ions in the front and higher level ions at the back, and the density is one order higher than that of the residual plasma on the coil surface. As the abscissa value of the sheet is larger than the decoupling distance, a reversed flow emerges, generating a backward impulse, and the negative velocity can be more than 15 km/s at peak intensity B 0 = 0.5 T. In the second 1/4 period, the magnetic field and current density distribute non-linearly on the surface and regularly in the sheet, caused by the reversing of the changing rate of the magnetic field and the particles' radial diffusion. The results at different intensities show that, for the same coil size, the time at which the maximum velocity V max appears is advanced as the intensity increases, and V max can be greater than 20 km/s above 0.5 T.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 86%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Numerical simulation on the operational characteristics of the pulsed inductive acceleration

Cheng

Xia

2018

Contributions to Plasma Physics

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“…Figure 6 is a plot of the anticipated thrust-to-power ratio vs. specific impulse for this DMH-Engine. Also plotted are several other SOA and high-power EP thrusters under development including the BPT-4000 thruster 6 , the VASIMR engine 7 , the Pulsed Inductive Thruster (or PIT) 8 , Aerojet's HPPS Hall Thruster (as a stand-alone), NASA's NEXT ion thruster, and a Lithium Magneto-Plasma Dynamic (or MPD) thruster 9 . Also plotted is a theoretical EP…”

Section: Multi-ring Annular-geometry Ion Engine; Magi-engine Multiplmentioning

confidence: 99%

Annular-Geometry Ion Engine: Concept, Development Status, and Preliminary Performance

Patterson

Herman

Shastry

et al. 2012

48th AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference &Amp;amp; Exhibit

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This publication discusses the concept, projected capabilities, technology development plan, and preliminary performance data obtained for an Annular-Geometry Ion Engine (AGI-Engine). The AGI-Engine is the basis for a new class of Next-Generation Electric Propulsion Thrusters under investigation at NASA Glenn Research Center. The AGI-Engine holds the promise of achieving substantial increases in input power (>10X) and power density (2-3X) relative to conventional ion thrusters at specific impulse values of interest for near-term mission applications. Nomenclature

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“…In a PI plasma, input energy heats the gas, produces ions, and is lost via radiation and diffusion to the walls. This can be expressed as equation (11). (11) As the plasma evolves over time, as seen in Figures above, energy is converted between these different forms.…”

Section: A Analysis Metricsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This can be expressed as equation (11). (11) As the plasma evolves over time, as seen in Figures above, energy is converted between these different forms. For instance, energy is initially deposited into thermal electron energy, where it is used to produce ions and excited species.…”

Section: A Analysis Metricsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Investigation of Pre-ionization Characteristics in Heavy Gas Pulsed Inductive Plasmas via Numerical Modeling

Meeks

Pahl

Rovey

2011

47th AIAA/ASME/SAE/ASEE Joint Propulsion Conference &Amp;amp; Exhibit

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A globally-averaged, pulsed inductive plasma model is reproduced and utilized to investigate pre-ionization conditions for a pulsed inductive plasma accelerator. Attention is given to better quantifying the formation and energy conversion/loss processes associated with the pre-ionization stage. Simulations are completed for different power input pulse duration, seed plasma density, and total input energy. Results are analyzed based on the ion energy fraction and peak ion density. Ion energy fraction is the percentage of total input energy contained in ionization. Analysis shows that reducing pulse duration from 10-6 to 10-7 seconds increases ion energy fraction by 16.5%. Reducing pulse duration further to 10-8 seconds increases ion energy fraction only another 2.5%. The optimum pulse duration from these simulations is 200 ns because this duration maximizes both ion energy fraction and peak ion density. Results show that a low seed plasma density, less than 10 14 m-3 , yields the highest ion energy fraction of 40%. Increasing seed plasma density above 10 14 m-3 increases peak ion density but causes a corresponding decrease in ion energy fraction. Increasing total energy deposition from 5 to 160 mJ increases ion energy fraction from 33 to 58% at a 200 ns pulse duration. However this increase is not linear, but has a diminishing return with ion energy fraction plateau estimated to be 65%.

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Comprehensive Review of Planar Pulsed Inductive Plasma Thruster Research and Technology

Cited by 65 publications

References 35 publications

Numerical simulation on the operational characteristics of the pulsed inductive acceleration

Numerical simulation on the operational characteristics of the pulsed inductive acceleration

Annular-Geometry Ion Engine: Concept, Development Status, and Preliminary Performance

Investigation of Pre-ionization Characteristics in Heavy Gas Pulsed Inductive Plasmas via Numerical Modeling

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