Hollow Cathode Thrust Measurement Using a Target: System Development and Calibration

Gessini, Paolo; Gabriel, Stephen; Fearn, D. G.

doi:10.2514/6.2002-4104

Cited by 12 publications

(10 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…Indirect methods of measuring thrust have been used, mostly by measuring the impulse of the jet [1][2][3][4][5][6][7], or by using pitot tubes [8]. In many recent cases, the impulse method has been applied to minior micro-thrusters [5,9,10] for its convenience and relative simplicity. Most use a flat plate of large area as the element receiving the total impulse, but in cases where the flow is highly rarefied and reflections from the plate must be avoided, elaborate shapes other than the flat plate are used as the impulse receiver [5].…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Aerodynamics of indirect thrust measurement by the impulse method

Wang

Meng

et al. 2011

Acta Mech Sin

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The aerodynamic aspects of indirect thrust measurement by the impulse method have been studied both experimentally and numerically. The underlying basic aerodynamic principle is outlined, the phenomena in subsonic, supersonic and arc-heated jets are explored, and factors affecting the accuracy of the method are studied and discussed. Results show that the impulse method is reliable for indirect thrust measurement if certain basic requirements are met, and a simple guideline for its proper application is given.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Aerodynamics of indirect thrust measurement by the impulse method

Wang

Meng

et al. 2011

Acta Mech Sin

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“…Measurements by Gessini at the University of Southampton [11] showed that, at low flow rates, a conventional unmodified T6 discharge cathode could generate ∼475 s specific impulse with xenon and ∼550 s with argon in a high-voltage "plume mode" [11][12][13][14]. In this case, power requirements approached 1 kW and thrust efficiencies were far lower than miniaturized gridded ion and Hall thrusters.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Assessment of the T5 and T6 Hollow Cathodes as Reaction Control Thrusters

Grubisic

Gabriel

2016

Journal of Propulsion and Power

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Hollow cathodes have been proposed as reaction control thrusters for all-electric and small spacecraft. This paper makes an assessment of modified T5 and T6 hollow cathodes for use as millinewton range thrusters. The influence of terminal parameters such as discharge current, mass flow rate, and cathode/anode geometry on thrust production is discussed. The data indicate that the T5 cathode may be able to develop specific impulses in the range of 150-250 s with argon at reasonable thrust efficiencies of up to 14%. As such, hollow-cathode thrusters may meet some limited applications. However, it is unlikely that this type of thruster could be improved significantly or could compete with similar thrusters in the same operating range. High specific impulse operation is also shown to develop large discharge voltage fluctuations, which may significantly limit the lifetime of such a device.

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“…In this direct measurement method, undesirable errors might be caused by the electric power cable and propellant feed tube connected to the thruster as well as by the friction force experienced by the thrust stand, and thus must be carefully eliminated. As a substitute of the direct measurement, indirect measurement has also been widely employed in experiments due to their relative convenience and simplicity [5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12], in particular for the cases to measure the thrust force of mini-or micro-thrusters [5,[10][11][12]. The indirect measurement method often employs a flat plate of large area, which is normally placed downstream of the thruster exit and impacted by the exhaust plume of the electric thruster.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The impact force acting on a flat plate exposed normally to a rarefied plasma plume issuing from an annular or circular nozzle

Chen¹

2010

J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys.

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With the indirect thrust measurement of electric thrusters working at a low vacuum chamber pressure as the research background, this paper analyses the impact force acting on a flat plate exposed normally to a rarefied plasma plume issuing from a thruster with an annular or circular exit section for the free-molecule flow regime (at large Knudsen numbers). The constraint relation proposed by Cai and Boyd (2007 J. Spacecr. Rockets 44 619, 1326) about the velocity components of gas particles leaving a location on the nozzle exit section and arriving at a given spatial point outside the nozzle has been employed here to derive the analytical expressions for calculating the impact force. Sample calculation results show that if the flat plate is sufficiently large, the impact force acting on the flat plate calculated for the case without accounting for gas particle reflection at the plate surface agrees well with the axial momentum flux calculated at the thruster exit or the theoretical thrust force of the studied thruster, while accounting for the contribution of gas particles reflected from the plate surface to the impact force production may significantly increase the calculated impact force acting on the flat plate. For a Hall-effect thruster in which the thrust force is dominantly produced by the ions with high directional kinetic energy and the ions are not directly reflected from the plate surface, the contribution to the impact force production of atom species and of gas particles reflected from the plate surface is negligibly small and thus the measured axial impact force acting on a sufficiently large plate can well represent the thrust force of the thruster. On the other hand, if the contribution of the gas particles reflected from the plate surface to the impact force production cannot be neglected (e.g. for the electric thrusters with comparatively low thruster exit temperatures), appreciable error would appear in the indirect thrust measurement.

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Hollow Cathode Thrust Measurement Using a Target: System Development and Calibration

Cited by 12 publications

References 5 publications

Aerodynamics of indirect thrust measurement by the impulse method

Aerodynamics of indirect thrust measurement by the impulse method

Assessment of the T5 and T6 Hollow Cathodes as Reaction Control Thrusters

The impact force acting on a flat plate exposed normally to a rarefied plasma plume issuing from an annular or circular nozzle

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