Experimental investigation of a water electrolysis Hall effect thruster

An oxygen-fuelled Hall Effect Thruster: Channel length, ceramic walls and anode material experimental analyses

“…For that matter, the results show in Section 3.2 compare these two grades together. Finally, previous investigation [32,33] suggested that shorter channels might end up with a better performance, although the whole discharge chamber lengths were not investigated yet. This research aims to survey the whole channel range to better understand the performance of molecular plasmas under different channel lengths.…”

“…The anode cap, which sits on top of the copper extension tube, can also be replaced allowing various anode materials to be tested. A detailed overview of the geometrical, thermal and magnetic design can be found in previous work of A. Schwertheim [22,32,33].…”

“…The configuration used for the testing of the thruster is compiled in Table 1. The motivation behind using this configuration is based on previous investigations [22,32,33]. In those, it was observed that the most suitable magnetic field topology for oxygen plasmas is a narrow magnetic field located near the exit of the channel.…”

“…3). Other exotic magnetic field configurations that did not follow a Gaussian shape peaking at the end of the channel resulted in a worse overall performance in terms of thrust efficiency [32] and therefore are not explored here. In practice, this magnetic field configuration is generated using electromagnets operating at 18 V and 1.5 A (𝑃 𝑚 = 27 W).…”

“…Previously, it was also discovered that the wall material had a strong impact on the thruster's behaviour. In fact, Boron Nitride (BN) Grade AX05 walls increased thrust by almost 40% compared to Alumina (Al 2 O 3 ) walls [32]. However, the impact of pure BN versus a BN Silica compound (BNSiO 2 ) on the thruster performance was not clear and thought to be of interest; as the lower Secondary Electron Emission (SEE) of the BNSiO 2 walls is lower than with BN [4].…”