Numerical Investigation of Plasma Active Flow Control

An ECR ion thruster with a diameter of 5 cm has been developed and tested. Four different antenna positions were experimentally and numerically investigated, and the results suggest that the optimal location for the antenna is where it is perfectly surrounded by the electron cyclotron resonance layer. We also evaluated two different antenna configurations, and found that the star configuration is preferable to the circular configuration, and also that the circular antenna is only 40% as efficient as the star antenna. The experimental curve of the ion beam current and voltage agrees with the fitting results from the analytic solution. The simulation of the magnetic topology in the discharging chamber with different back yoke heights indicates that it needs to be further verified.

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of the primary experimental results on a 5 cm diameter ECR ion thruster

Sun

CHEN

et al. 2017

“…Cs CO Cs CO 5 Under the effect of MHD, the plasma obeys both the electromagnetic equation and the fluid dynamics equation, and the complete MHD equation [14] is given by: Continuity equation:…”

Section: Realization Of Low-temperature Gas Plasmamentioning

confidence: 99%

Numerical and experimental investigation of plasma plume deflection with MHD flow control

Zhao

Sun³

et al. 2018

Self Cite

This paper presents a composite magneto hydrodynamics (MHD) method to control the lowtemperature micro-ionized plasma flow generated by injecting alkali salt into the combustion gas to realize the thrust vector of an aeroengine. The principle of plasma flow with MHD control is analyzed. The feasibility of plasma jet deflection is investigated using numerical simulation with MHD control by loading the User-Defined Function model. A test rig with plasma flow controlled by MHD is established. An alkali salt compound with a low ionization energy is injected into combustion gas to obtain the low-temperature plasma flow. Finally, plasma plume deflection is obtained in different working conditions. The results demonstrate that plasma plume deflection with MHD control can be realized via numerical simulation. A low-temperature plasma flow can be obtained by injecting an alkali metal salt compound with low ionization energy into a combustion gas at 1800-2500 K. The vector angle of plasma plume deflection increases with the increase of gas temperature and the magnetic field intensity. It is feasible to realize the aim of the thrust vector of aeroengine by using MHD to control plasma flow deflection.

“…Electron backstreaming failure [29−31] Electron backstreaming in the ion thruster is caused by beam electrons that flow back into the discharge chamber. This phenomenon happens if the electric potential in the aperture exceeds the potential barrier established by the acceleration grid [13] . If the electron backstreaming failure occurs, the defined ration of the electron backstreaming fraction and beam current is 1% [32] .…”

Section: Lifetime Predictionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In 2008, Liu et al [18] applied a three-dimensional model to calculate the depth of the sputtering erosion and predict the lifetime of the grid. Recently, Sun et al [13] developed a two-dimensional particle model to investigate a three-grid electron cyclotron resonance ion thruster, the rule of a deceleration grid on the performance of the grid system was specified.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Analysis of Numerical Simulation Results of LIPS-200 Lifetime Experiments

Chen¹,

Zhang²,

Geng³

2016

Accelerator grid structural and electron backstreaming failures are the most important factors affecting the ion thruster's lifetime. During the thruster's operation, Charge Exchange Xenon (CEX) ions are generated from collisions between plasma and neutral atoms. Those CEX ions grid's barrel and wall frequently, which cause the failures of the grid system. In order to validate whether the 20 cm Lanzhou Ion Propulsion System (LIPS-200) satisfies China's communication satellite platform's application requirement for North-South Station Keeping (NSSK), this study analyzed the measured depth of the pit/groove on the accelerator grid's wall and aperture diameter's variation and estimated the operating lifetime of the ion thruster. Different from the previous method, in this paper, the experimental results after the 5500 h of accumulated operation of the LIPS-200 ion thruster are presented firstly. Then, based on these results, theoretical analysis and numerical calculations were firstly performed to predict the on-orbit lifetime of LIPS-200. The results obtained were more accurate to calculate the reliability and analyze the failure modes of the ion thruster. The results indicated that the predicted lifetime of LIPS-200's was about 13218.1 h which could satisfy the required lifetime requirement of 11000 h very well.