MPD thruster performance with various propellants

Uematsu, Kazuo; Morimoto, S.; Kuriki, K.

doi:10.2514/3.25766

Cited by 30 publications

(17 citation statements)

References 7 publications

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“…The equations (2) - (8) are discretized by the finite volume method. The convection terms and the diffusion terms are evaluated by the 2nd-order HLL scheme 15) and the 2nd-order central difference respectively.…”

Section: Mhd Analysis Of Plasma Flowmentioning

confidence: 99%

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MHD Simulation and Thermal Design of an MPD Thruster

Kawasaki

Kubota

Funaki

et al. 2014

AEROSPACE TECHNOLOGY JAPAN

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For a 500-to-900-kW-class steady-state self-field magnetoplasmadynamic (MPD) thruster, the thermal design is conducted with a combination of magnetohydrodynamic (MHD) and thermal analyses, where a heat flux evaluated from the MHD analysis is imposed on the electrode as a boundary condition in the thermal analysis. The increase in anode-to-cathode radius ratio improves the thrust performance, but can simultaneously raise the temperature locally at the anode exit edge and the cathode tip due to the concentration of the discharge current and/or the insufficient heat removal. It is suggested, however, that a thruster without electrode melting should be realizable even at such a high input power by setting an appropriate cathode radius and enhancing heat removal from the electrodes by means of heat pipe, although the achievable performance of the thruster depends on the assumption of the temperature of cathode root.

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Section: Mhd Analysis Of Plasma Flowmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Recently, it was numerically suggested that a radiation-cooled MPD thruster using argon propellant can be realizable with a thrust efficiency of 21% at 400kWe-class power input 7) . The thrust efficiency, however, is expected to be improved considerably by using hydrogen as the propellant 8,9) .…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

MHD Simulation and Thermal Design of an MPD Thruster

Kawasaki

Kubota

Funaki

et al. 2014

AEROSPACE TECHNOLOGY JAPAN

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“…We therefore make the simplifying assumption K e = 0. Thus q e = 5an Q kT e V/2 (8) which represents electron heat transport driven by ambipolar diffusion.…”

Section: + Ft;mentioning

confidence: 99%

Injected propellant ionization in MPD thrusters

Burton

Tiliakos

1993

Journal of Propulsion and Power

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A model is presented for the self-magnetized, weakly ionized preionization region at the entrance to a magnetoplasmadynamic (MPD) accelerator. The model is steady, one-dimensional and inviscid, and assumes supersonic flow of argon plasma with zero current in the region. Heavy particle temperature is constant, and electron temperature T e is determined by ambipolar diffusion and by photo-and electron-impact ionization processes. The plasma continuity, momentum, and energy equations are integrated numerically with appropriate boundary conditions, giving a region width AJC ranging from 3 to 17 mm, depending on density, and a degree of ionization a increasing from an initial value of a = 10 ~7 to a -4 ± 2 x 10 ~4 at the MPD accelerator inlet. The electron temperature rises monotonically from T e -1000 K to T e = 18,000 K, a level sufficient to sustain MPD accelerator operation. The total electrostatic potential across AJC is AV = 12.5 ± 0.6 V. Reducing the injected particle flux Q (} increases AJC, until a critical Q 0 is reached below which no solutions exist. Nomenclature B= magnetic field, T E X7 E y -laboratory electric field, V/m £4 = average excess energy of ionizing photoelectrons, eV /' = photon fraction with hv > E f G = electron temperature gradient, dTJdx h = Planck's constant, J-s j = current density, A/m 2 L = arc length in flow direction, m ROSS = Rosseland mean free path, m n = particle density, m~3 n n = neutral particle density, m~3 n 0 = total heavy particle density, m~3 p e = electron pressure, Pa Q ei = coulomb cross section, m 2 Qen = electron-neutral cross section, m 2 Qo = particle flux n 0 u, particles/m 2 -s q e = electron heat flux vector, W/m 2 r L = Larmor radius, m r, T e -heavy particle, electron temperature, K 7" ex = excitation temperature, K u, v -axial, transverse mass average velocity, laboratory reference frame, m/s V -electron/ion ambipolar diffusion velocity, m/s V n = neutral diffusion velocity, m/s AJC = preionization width, (x l -Jt 0 )> m a = degree of ionization F ex = excitation rate, excitations/m 3 -s F, = electron impact ionization rate, electrons/m 3 -s r r = recombination rate, atoms/m 3 -s T^ = photoionization rate, electrons/m 3 -s K e = electron thermal conductivity, W/m K v = collision frequency, s" 1 f\ = electron hall parameter Constants Ef = argon ionization potential, J e = electron charge, C k = Boltzman constant, J/K Associate Fellow AIAA. tGraduate Student. Student Member AIAA. M= ion mass, kg m = electron mass, kg S = slope of argon excitation cross section, m 2 /J

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“…where / is the length of the pendulum arm, k is the spring constant of the pivot and m is the mass of thruster. As a result, hanging pendulum thrust balances have mainly been used for MPD thrusters (Yoshikawa et al, 1984;Uematsu et al, 1985;Sasoh and Arakawa, 1993). A variation on the hanging pendulum is the long-period pendulum configuration.…”

Section: Thrust Measurement Techniquesmentioning

confidence: 99%