Global model of a gridded-ion thruster powered by a radiofrequency inductive coil

Chabert, Pascal; Monreal, J. Arancibia; Bredin, Jérôme; Popelier, Lara; Aanesland, Ane

doi:10.1063/1.4737114

Cited by 67 publications

(62 citation statements)

References 15 publications

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“…27,28 The model we present explains recent thruster performance levels and offers a theoretical guide to achieving improved performance to make these systems competitive with the more well-established gridded ion engines and Hall-effect thrusters.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Helicon plasma thruster discharge model

Lafleur

2014

Physics of Plasmas

106

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International audienceBy considering particle, momentum, and energy balance equations, we develop a semi-empirical quasi one-dimensional analytical discharge model of radio-frequency and helicon plasma thrusters. The model, which includes both the upstream plasma source region as well as the downstream diverging magnetic nozzle region, is compared with experimental measurements and confirms current performance levels. Analysis of the discharge model identifies plasma power losses on the radial and back wall of the thruster as the major performance reduction factors. These losses serve as sinks for the input power which do not contribute to the thrust, and which reduce the maximum plasma density and hence propellant utilization. With significant radial plasma losses eliminated, the discharge model (with argon) predicts specific impulses in excess of 3000 s, propellant utilizations above 90%, and thruster efficiencies of about 30%

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 98%

Helicon plasma thruster discharge model

Lafleur

2014

Physics of Plasmas

106

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“…Such a coupling is representative of real-life conditions observed while testing RF thrusters. The developed model is in contrast to the other RF thruster models (developed for example by Volkmar [13,30], Chabert [12] or Gartner [14]) that only looked at a specific aspect of the RF thruster operation, concentrating on either predicting the thruster's performance or the temperature distribution but not both in a coupled fashion. It was observed that if the coupling between the thruster's temperatures and performance is not consistent, an error of up to about 10% in the RFG input power can be incurred at high mass utilization efficiencies.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Nevertheless, he did not look at the electromagnetic aspect of RF thruster operation, which prevented him from calculating the total thruster input power and efficiency. Chabert et al [12] extended Goebel's model and included the electromagnetic part by introducing the aforementioned transformer assumptions. Volkmar et al developed a 3D Biot-Savart solver to calculate the coil impedance and used the magnetic diffusion equation to determine the electromagnetic field distribution inside the plasma represented by the uniform 0D model [13].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

A coupled performance and thermal model for radio-frequency gridded ion thrusters*

Dobkevicius

Feili

2016

Eur. Phys. J. D

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Abstract.Recently proposed space missions such as Darwin, eLISA and NGGM have encouraged the development of electric propulsion thrusters capable of operating in the micro-Newton (μN) thrust range. To meet these requirements, radio frequency (RF) gridded-ion thrusters need to be scaled down to a few centimeters in size. Due to the small size of these thrusters, it is important to accurately determine the thermal and performance parameters. To achieve this, a multi-physics performance model has been developed, composed of plasma discharge, 2D axisymmetric ion extraction, 3D electromagnetic and RF circuit models. The plasma discharge model itself is represented using 0D global, 2D axisymmetric and 3D molecular neutral gas, and Boltzmann electron transport sub-models. A 3D thermal model is introduced to determine the temperature distribution for various throttle points, using as inputs the plasma and electromagnetic field heating values obtained from the performance model. This also allows the validation of the performance model itself. Additionally, we analyze the effect the thruster's temperatures play on the plasma properties/performance and vice versa. The model is based on the RIT 3.5 thruster developed for the NGGM mission geometry and predicts the RIT 3.5 experimental data within approximately 10%.

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“…This is regarded as crucial since most numerical models of RF ion thrusters use 2D rotational symmetric methods-or even 1D and 0D methods-which cannot predict the axially induced field components caused by the pitch of the coil. [13][14][15][16] ..The discrete form of the Laplacian operator in Cartesian coordinates can be derived by a Taylor expansion and subsequent dropping of the discretization error, as shown in 17):…”

Section: )mentioning

confidence: 99%

Self-Consistent Numerical 0D/3D Hybrid Modeling of Radio-Frequency Ion Thrusters

Volkmar¹,

Ricklefs²,

Klar

2016

AEROSPACE TECHNOLOGY JAPAN

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In this paper, we show a numerical model of gridded radio-frequency (RF) ion thrusters. The model consists of a set of self-consistently coupled equations based on conservation of charge, energy, and mass inside the system. Those 0D models are again coupled to a 3D quasi-stationary electromagnetic field solver which offers the opportunity of evaluating arbitrary induction coil and discharge chamber geometries in fairly reasonable simulation time. Several input parameter sets can be computed in parallel due to multi-core implementation. Therefore, the model presented can be regarded as a toolbox for ion thruster engineering purposes and rapid virtual prototyping. The model predicts electrical parameters such as thruster and plasma impedance as well as propulsive performance data. It is thus possible to use it for finding optimized coil and chamber geometries together with optimized input parameters (coil current, volumetric propellant flow rate, and extraction grid voltages) in order to obtain improved mass and electrical efficiency. To prove the validity of the model, performance mappings experimentally performed on a RIM-4 RF ion thruster assembled at the University of Giessen are used to verify the computed data.

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Global model of a gridded-ion thruster powered by a radiofrequency inductive coil

Cited by 67 publications

References 15 publications

Helicon plasma thruster discharge model

Helicon plasma thruster discharge model

A coupled performance and thermal model for radio-frequency gridded ion thrusters*

Self-Consistent Numerical 0D/3D Hybrid Modeling of Radio-Frequency Ion Thrusters

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