New Type of Target for the Measurement of Impulse Bits of Pulsed Plasma Thrusters

Yanagi, Ryoji; Kimura, Itsuro

doi:10.2514/3.62245

Cited by 30 publications

(18 citation statements)

References 3 publications

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“…This procedure is referred to as the target method. 27,32 To confirm the accuracy of the thrust measurement by the target method, we compare the thrust obtained by the pendulum method with that by the target method. After the difference between the thrust performances measured by the two methods is confirmed to be negligible, the thrust in plasma-discharging operation is obtained by the target method.…”

Section: B Thrust Measurementmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Figures 4͑b͒ and 4͑c͒ show the front and side views of the cylindrical target, similar to the one made by Yanagi and Kimura. 27 The plasma beam comes into the target made of Teflon, through the entrance hole on the front plate. The bottom plate of the target is conically shaped, and most rebounding gas particles from the bottom plate leave radially from the target through a number of slits on the side of the cylinder; in practice, the total opening area normal to the side is much larger compared with the area of the entrance hole.…”

Section: A Microplasma Source and Micronozzlementioning

confidence: 99%

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A miniature electrothermal thruster using microwave-excited microplasmas: Thrust measurement and its comparison with numerical analysis

Takao

Eriguchi

Ono

2007

Journal of Applied Physics

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A microplasma thruster has been developed, consisting of a cylindrical microplasma source 10mm long and 1.5mm in inner diameter and a conical micronozzle 1.0–1.4mm long with a throat of 0.12–0.2mm in diameter. The feed or propellant gas employed is Ar at pressures of 10–100kPa, and the surface-wave-excited plasma is established by 4.0GHz microwaves at powers of <10W. The thrust has been measured by a combination of target and pendulum methods, exhibiting the performance improved by discharging the plasma. The thrust obtained is 1.4mN at an Ar gas flow rate of 60SCCM (1.8mg∕s) and a microwave power of 6W, giving a specific impulse of 79s and a thrust efficiency of 8.7%. The thrust and specific impulse are 0.9mN and 51s, respectively, in cold-gas operation. A comparison with numerical analysis indicates that the pressure thrust contributes significantly to the total thrust at low gas flow rates, and that the micronozzle tends to have an isothermal wall rather than an adiabatic.

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Section: B Thrust Measurementmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: A Microplasma Source and Micronozzlementioning

confidence: 99%

A miniature electrothermal thruster using microwave-excited microplasmas: Thrust measurement and its comparison with numerical analysis

Takao

Eriguchi

Ono

2007

Journal of Applied Physics

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“…6 When pulsing the magnetic field or discharge current as in high-power applied-field magnetoplasmadynamic (MPD) thruster, 7 the displacement of the thrust balance due to both the thrust force and the external magnetic force is probably superimposed. To avoid such issues, a momentum exerted on a target structure located downstream of the thruster exit is sometimes measured to estimate the thrust a) Electronic address: kazunori@ecei.tohoku.ac.jp value, [8][9][10][11] where it should be noted that the particle behavior near the target surface has not been fully understood yet. When the energetic neutral particles generated by a charge exchange process or thermal heating impinge on the target surface elastically, they deliver twice the momentum of the actual particle momentum to the target.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Measurement of plasma momentum exerted on target by a small helicon plasma thruster and comparison with direct thrust measurement

Takahashi

Komuro

Andõ

2015

Review of Scientific Instruments

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Momentum, i.e., force, exerted from a small helicon plasma thruster to a target plate is measured simultaneously with a direct thrust measurement using a thrust balance. The calibration coefficient relating a target displacement to a steady-state force is obtained by supplying a dc to a calibration coil mounted on the target, where a force acting to a small permanent magnet located near the coil is directly measured by using a load cell. As the force exerted by the plasma flow to the target plate is in good agreement with the directly measured thrust, the validity of the target technique is demonstrated under the present operating conditions, where the thruster is operated in steady-state. Furthermore, a calibration coefficient relating a swing amplitude of the target to an impulse bit is also obtained by pulsing the calibration coil current. The force exerted by the pulsed plasma, which is estimated from the measured impulse bit and the pulse width, is also in good agreement with that obtained for the steady-state operation; hence, the thrust assessment of the helicon plasma thruster by the target is validated for both the steady-state and pulsed operations.

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“…Impulse bit was measured with a cylindrical pendulum-type thrust target made of polyvinyl chloride 5) . Histories of thrust target displacement were recorded with a thrust-measuring PC.…”

Section: Impulse Bit Measurementmentioning

confidence: 99%

A Pulsed Plasma Thruster Using Dimethyl Ether as Propellant

Masui

Okada

Kitatomi

et al. 2012

AEROSPACE TECHNOLOGY JAPAN

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The pulsed plasma thruster (PPT), has attracted attention again as a micro-thruster because of its compactness, light weight, and comparatively low power consumption. On the other hand, the propellant utilization efficiency of a conventinal Teflon PPT is relatively low among electric propulsion devices because a propellant that originates from late-time ablation produces negligible thrust. The liquid propellant PPT (LP-PPT), in which water or ethanol is fed with an injector, was proposed to overcome these difficulties. Thrust measurements show that a LP-PPT provides higher specific impulses than a conventional PPT. However, water requires temperature management for propellant storage due to its relatively high freezing point. Moreover, even if ethanol, which has a sufficiently low freezing point, is used as propellant, a pressurant is necessary, as well as water, because the vapor pressures are insufficient for self-pressurization. In this study, we propose to use dimethyl ether (DME) as the propellant. DME, which has a freezing point of 131 K at 1 atm and a vapor pressure of 6 atm at 298 K, can be stored in tanks as a liquid, and requires no feeding pressurant. We designed a DME pulsed plasma thruster to evaluate performance. Thrust measurement yielded a specific impulse of 430 s for a coaxial type at a capacitor-stored energy of 13 J.

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New Type of Target for the Measurement of Impulse Bits of Pulsed Plasma Thrusters

Cited by 30 publications

References 3 publications

A miniature electrothermal thruster using microwave-excited microplasmas: Thrust measurement and its comparison with numerical analysis

A miniature electrothermal thruster using microwave-excited microplasmas: Thrust measurement and its comparison with numerical analysis

Measurement of plasma momentum exerted on target by a small helicon plasma thruster and comparison with direct thrust measurement

A Pulsed Plasma Thruster Using Dimethyl Ether as Propellant

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