Results of a preliminary, high power RF thruster test

Brewer, L.; Karras, T. W.; Frind, G.; Holmes, D. Graham

doi:10.2514/6.1989-2382

Cited by 8 publications

(3 citation statements)

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“…General Electric explored a 2.35 MHz thruster at 70 kW with different mixtures of argon and helium and obtained a maximum specific impulse of 583 s with a thruster efficiency of 44%. 28 Culham Laboratory investigated a 5 kW thruster at 2 MHz with argon and obtained a specific impulse of 123 s with a thruster efficiency of 18%. 29 Since these initial studies, RF ICP electrothermal thrusters appear to have been largely forgotten or ignored in the literature, and interest has only resurfaced in more recent years.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characterization of a radio-frequency inductively coupled electrothermal plasma thruster

Lafleur

Corr

2021

Journal of Applied Physics

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A radio-frequency (RF) inductively coupled electrothermal plasma thruster operating with argon is experimentally characterized for different mass flow rates, RF powers, and propellant injection configurations. Depending on the propellant mass flow rate, significant neutral gas heating is observed with effective stagnation temperatures around 2000 K (giving a maximum estimated thrust and specific impulse of about 100 mN and 125 s, respectively) for absorbed powers between 300 and 500 W. A self-consistent theoretical discharge model is developed and used to study the basic physics and operation of RF electrothermal thrusters, and predictions of the gas temperature are in good agreement with experimental measurements. The model identifies primary power inefficiencies as electron-neutral excitation losses and neutral gas heat losses to the thruster walls. Both experimental and theoretical results indicate that a relatively high stagnation pressure (of the order of 100 Torr or higher) is critical for high performance. For pressures significantly below this the electron-neutral collisional power transfer is too low to effectively heat the neutral gas.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Characterization of a radio-frequency inductively coupled electrothermal plasma thruster

Lafleur

Corr

2021

Journal of Applied Physics

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“…In the last decade several very low power < 50 W electric propulsion system were tested in space with some success, including pulsed plasma thrusters [2,3], electrospray thrusters [3] and vacuum arc thrusters [4,5]. Thruster based on capacitively coupled radio-frequency (CCRF) discharges are also being investigated as potential micro-thrusters [6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17][18][19][20][21]. The CCRF discharge operation can be divided in two main regions [22]: a quasi-neutral bulk region, and narrow sheath region near each electrodes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Modelling of capillary capacitively coupled radio frequency thruster

Quraishi

Kronhaus

2021

J. Phys. D: Appl. Phys.

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Computational fluid dynamics plasma simulations of a capillary capacitively coupled radio frequency thruster discharge with front powered electrode was performed. Good agreement with experimental results was obtained for the global parameters of the thruster. The spatial characteristics of the discharge were analyzed. DC bias is found to develop in accordance with classical theory of asymmetric capacitive discharge. The electrons temperature in the plasma bulk is ∼2 eV and increasing the sheath near the powered electrode to ∼6 eV. The plasma density is 1019 m−3 whereas excited argon species are 1020 m−3. The thrust can be completely attributed to gas dynamic acceleration.

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“…[8][9][10][11][12][13] RF has been used as either a means for ion production in electrostatic thrusters, or a means to heat a fluid similarly to a microwave thruster operating a much lower frequency. RFCCD utilizes the RF component to contain as well as heat the ions produced by the glow discharge.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%