Study of the electric field formation in a multi-cusped magnetic field

Meng

et al. 2015

Contrib. Plasma Phys.

The cusped field thruster is a kind of newly developed electric propulsion device. The electric field at the channel exit and the low frequency oscillation were measured by former experiments. While the formation mechanism of them have not been fully interpreted yet. Through studying two distinguishing typical electron paths in the thrusters, a fluid model is built up along two electron paths, and then the model is completed by synthetically analyzing the effect of two electron paths. Time-averaged electric potential distribution, anode current oscillation curve and time-synchronized atom density and ion density distribution are obtained by simulation.

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 76%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Fluid Simulation of a Cusped Field Thruster

Meng

et al. 2015

Contrib. Plasma Phys.

“…The thruster has a great radial difference. A 2D Particle-in-Cell (PIC) simulation conducted by HIT Plasma Propulsion Lab (HPPL) has showed that the axial electron current density near the channel axis is much higher than that at other regions 7 . By other PIC simulations, the uneven radial distribution characteristic of the thruster has also been validated [8][9][10] .…”

Section: Iepc-2015-375／ists-2015-b-375mentioning

confidence: 99%

Anode current density distribution in a cusped field thruster

Meng

et al. 2015

Physics of Plasmas

Self Cite

The cusped field thruster is a newly emerging electric propulsion device. A radial non-uniformity of current density is supposed at the anode. To further study the anode current density distribution, a multi-annulus anode is designed to directly measure the anode current density for the first time. With the increase of the radial position, the anode current density decreases sharply. The magnitude of the central annulus anode current density is far higher than the other annulus. When increasing the anode voltage, ratio of the current of central annular occupying the total anode current will increase. But the non-uniformity of the anode current density change limitedly by altering anode gas flow rate.

“…According to former researches on the cusped field thrusters, the electron confinement in the magnetic field is expected to be significant near the ultimate separatrix region (shown in figure 1), the electrons are strongly hindered and the main acceleration region is formed near the exit. 4,6 Therefore, it can be speculated that the small change of electron current I e and current utilization η c in different magnetic fields should be attributed to the well maintained magnetic field near the exit [in figure 4(c)].…”

Section: Aip Advances 6 095003 (2016)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The generated ions are accelerated by the mainly axial electric field near the exit and spurted out of the thruster, thus forming the thrust. 2 The laser-induced fluorescence (LIF) experiments [3][4][5] and Particle-in-Cell (PIC) simulations 6,7 have validated that the main acceleration region locates near the downstream of the thruster exit. Meanwhile, as the electrons are strongly confined by the mainly axial magnetic field in the discharge channel, the main ionization region can be established near the axis of the ultimate stage, as shown in figure 1.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Effects of magnetic field strength in the discharge channel on the performance of a multi-cusped field thruster

Gao

et al. 2016

AIP Advances

Self Cite

The effects of magnetic field in plume region on the performance of multi-cusped field thruster Physics of Plasmas 22, 103502 (2015) The performance characteristics of a Multi-cusped Field Thruster depending on the magnetic field strength in the discharge channel were investigated. Four thrusters with different outer diameters of the magnet rings were designed to change the magnetic field strength in the discharge channel. It is found that increasing the magnetic field strength could restrain the radial cross-field electron current and decrease the radial width of main ionization region, which gives rise to the reduction of propellant utilization and thruster performance. The test results in different anode voltage conditions indicate that both the thrust and anode efficiency are higher for the weaker magnetic field in the discharge channel. C 2016 Author(s). All article content, except where otherwise noted, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license