Intake design for an Atmosphere-Breathing Electric Propulsion System (ABEP)

Romano, Francesco; Espinosa-Orozco, J.; Pfeiffer, Marcel; Herdrich, Georg; Crisp, Nicholas; Roberts, Peter; Holmes, Brandon; Edmondson, Steve; Haigh, Sarah J.; Livadiotti, Sabrina; Macario-Rojas, A.; Oiko, Vitor Toshiyuki Abrao; Sinpetru, Luciana; Smith, Katherine; Becedas, Jonathan; Sulliotti-Linner, V.; Bisgaard, Morten; Christensen, Steffan Wittrup; Hanessian, V.; Jensen, Thomas Kauffman; Nielsen, Jens D.; Chan, Yung-An; Fasoulas, Stefanos; Traub, Constantin; García-Almiñana, Daniel; Rodriguez-Donaire, Silvia; Sureda, Miquel; Kataria, D. O.; Belkouchi, Badia; Conte, Alexis; Seminari, Simon; Villain, Rachel

doi:10.1016/j.actaastro.2021.06.033

Cited by 45 publications

(30 citation statements)

References 26 publications

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“…In the last decade, a number of intake concepts for air-breathing EP application were investigated by several research groups [10,[20][21][22][23][24]. Most of these concepts proposed compact intake geometries featuring an inlet composed of several elongated ducts having a circular, rectangular, or hexagonal section and act as a molecular trap for the collected flow, ideally increasing the collected particles residence time inside the propulsion system, hence the achievable intake compression.…”

Section: Neutral Monte Carlomentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Most of these concepts proposed compact intake geometries featuring an inlet composed of several elongated ducts having a circular, rectangular, or hexagonal section and act as a molecular trap for the collected flow, ideally increasing the collected particles residence time inside the propulsion system, hence the achievable intake compression. In the study mentioned in reference [24], the impact of wall accommodation on intake performance is investigated, showing how, in the hypothesis of pure specular reflection, an impressive 94% particle transmission can be achieved by a parabolic intake shape connected to the thruster inlet. Since most materials used in practical applications are highly diffusive, the authors highlight the importance of researching on novel aerodynamic materials promoting nearly specular reflection.…”

Section: Neutral Monte Carlomentioning

confidence: 99%

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Rarefied Flow Simulation of Conical Intake and Plasma Thruster for Very Low Earth Orbit Spaceflight

et al. 2022

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Air-breathing electric propulsion has the potential to enable space missions at very low altitudes. This study introduces to a 0D hybrid formulation for describing the coupled intake and thruster physics of an air-breathing electric propulsion prototype. Model derivation is then used to formally derive main system’s key performance indicators and estimate the figure of merit for the design of rarefied flow air intakes. Achievable performance by conical intake shapes are defined and evaluated by Monte Carlo simulations. Influence of inlet flow variation is assessed by dedicated sensitivity analyses. The set of requirements and optimality conditions derived for the downstream plasma thruster suggest concept feasibility within an achievable performance range.

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Section: Neutral Monte Carlomentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Neutral Monte Carlomentioning

confidence: 99%

Rarefied Flow Simulation of Conical Intake and Plasma Thruster for Very Low Earth Orbit Spaceflight

et al. 2022

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“…It has a long and slender cylindrical intake in front of the SC with a honeycomb duct section at the front to operate as a molecular trap delivering η c = 0.2 − 0.4. The intake designs developed at IRS [21][22][23] are based on a long slender cylindrical intake with a honeycomb duct section in the front optimized for both Earth and Mars atmosphere that can achieve η c = 0.43. The Central Aerohydrodynamic Institute TsAGI [24][25][26][27][28][29][30] developed a similar concept, but the honeycomb is changed for a squared duct section delivering η c = 0.33 − 0.34.…”

Section: Intake Literature Reviewmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Such analysis included an analytical model, the balance model (BM), based on transmission probabilities [21], and simulations for optimal aspect ratios (AR) of the duct grid geometry, defined as the ratio between duct length and square root of its cross section. Finally, the results have been verified via simulations performed with PICLas [21][22][23]. Based on the previous work, different diffuse reflection-based intake concepts are hereby analysed by implementing hexagonal grid geometries for 3D investigation and tailored, a given A out , to the RF Helicon-based plasma thruster as reference [19].…”

Section: Intake Based On Diffuse Reflecting Materialsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Based on this different (intake) cases are designed, simulated, and evaluated for better understating the scattering dynamics inside the hexagonal ducts in terms of η c . The first iteration affects the variation of overall intake size and chamber angles, with a fixed duct AR based on previous studies [21][22][23]. Then, the designs providing η c ≥ 0.3 are further adapted to the hexagonal outer shape.…”

Section: Design Improvement Settings and Proceduresmentioning

confidence: 99%

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RF Helicon-based Inductive Plasma Thruster (IPT) Design for an Atmosphere-Breathing Electric Propulsion system (ABEP)

et al. 2020

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Challenging space missions include those at very low altitudes, where the atmosphere is source of aerodynamic drag on the spacecraft. To extend such missions lifetime, an efficient propulsion system is required. One solution is Atmosphere-Breathing Electric Propulsion (ABEP). It collects atmospheric particles to be used as propellant for an electric thruster. The system would minimize the requirement of limited propellant availability and can also be applied to any planet with atmosphere, enabling new mission at low altitude ranges for longer times. Challenging is also the presence of reactive chemical species, such as atomic oxygen in Earth orbit. Such species cause erosion of (not only) propulsion system components, i.e. acceleration grids, electrodes, and discharge channels of conventional EP systems. IRS is developing within the DISCOVERER project, an intake and a thruster for an ABEP system. The paper describes the design and implementation of the RF helicon-based inductive plasma thruster (IPT). This

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Modelling and simulation of atmosphere-breathing electric propulsion intakes via direct simulation Monte Carlo

Rapisarda

2021

CEAS Space J

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The Air-Breathing Ion Engine (ABIE) is an electric propulsion system capable of compensating for drag at low altitudes by ingesting the surrounding atmospheric particles to be utilized as propellant. The current state of the art of the ABIE performance is evaluated via Direct Simulation Monte Carlo (DSMC), due to the rarefied nature of the atmosphere in Very-Low Earth Orbit (VLEO). Nevertheless, the scarce availability of relevant simulation methodologies in the literature limits the repeatability of such numerical studies. Therefore, this paper proposes an independent methodology applicable to the modelling and simulation of Atmosphere-Breathing Electric Propulsion (ABEP) intakes that aims to validate the ABIE DSMC results retrieved from the literature. This is achieved by investigating the ABIE intake collection efficiency and compression ratio through the open-source solver dsmcFoam+ and by assessing the results against the available RARAC-3D DSMC data. First, the variation of grid transparency is discussed and compared between both solvers, yielding a mean percentage error of $$2.97\%$$ 2.97 % for the compression ratio and $$2.06\%$$ 2.06 % for the collection efficiency. Second, the absence of intermolecular collisions is verified for which errors of $$1.61\%$$ 1.61 % for collection efficiency and $$3.49\%$$ 3.49 % for compression ratio are observed. Then, the variation of flow incidence angle is simulated between $$0^{\circ }$$ 0 ∘ and $$15^{\circ }$$ 15 ∘ , yielding differences lower than $$1.80\%$$ 1.80 % . Consecutively, the intake aspect ratio is varied between 10 and 40, for which a maximum discrepancy of $$1.83\%$$ 1.83 % is measured and, finally, the drag coefficient of the intake is obtained in dsmcFoam+ to define the power density requirements.

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Intake design for an Atmosphere-Breathing Electric Propulsion System (ABEP)

Cited by 45 publications

References 26 publications

Rarefied Flow Simulation of Conical Intake and Plasma Thruster for Very Low Earth Orbit Spaceflight

Rarefied Flow Simulation of Conical Intake and Plasma Thruster for Very Low Earth Orbit Spaceflight

RF Helicon-based Inductive Plasma Thruster (IPT) Design for an Atmosphere-Breathing Electric Propulsion system (ABEP)

Modelling and simulation of atmosphere-breathing electric propulsion intakes via direct simulation Monte Carlo

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