分块阳极式激光支持的脉冲等离子体推力器实验研究

通过纳秒激光烧蚀羽流特性的研究证实了羽流分裂现象的存在,为了抑制羽流分裂现象可能带来的滞后烧蚀而将分块阳极构型引入激光支持的脉冲等离子体推力器中,由此首次提出了分块阳极式激光支持的脉冲等离子体推力器的概念.通过实验对比研究了分块阳极和正常阳极构型的放电特性参数、性能参数和放电电弧发展演化等特性.结果表明,分块阳极构型能...     

毛细管脉冲等离子体推力器等离子羽流分团现象与等效速度测量

毛细管型脉冲等离子体推力器采用固态工质，电热加速机制，结构简单可靠，是一种具有应用价值的微纳卫星低功率电推进系统。本文建立电学和光学联合诊断系统，对毛细管脉冲等离子体推力器等离子体羽流演变过程进行了研究。由于放电电流振荡，推力器等离子体羽流存在二次建立过程。初始阶段等离子体羽流中主要包含带电粒子组分，二次建立阶段等离子体羽流主要包含中性成分。利用光电二极管阵列和窄带滤光片建立了飞行时间法，获得了不同放电电压、腔体内径和腔体长度下等离子体羽流分团的等效速度演变特性。结果表明，电热加速机制能够使带电组分和中性成分获得较为良好的加速效果（>10km/s）。在一定放电能量下，放电腔体长度小于25mm有利于获得较优性能参数。等离子体羽流等效速度结果能够较为准确地反映推力器输出比冲和效率参数变化规律，可作为推力器输出参数便捷有效的评估手段。     

脉冲等离子体推力器烧蚀建模与仿真

为了深入地揭示平板型脉冲等离子体推力器（PPT）工作机理,通过对PPT在放电过程中的欧姆加热能量分配分析,建立了基于能量守恒原理的改进烧蚀模型,并对磁流体动力学方程中的能量方程进行了修正。结合LES-6对PPT工作过程进行了一维磁流体动力学数值仿真,获得了PPT的速度分布、放电烧蚀质量和元冲量等参数的变化过程。仿真结果表明,改进模型能正确地反映脉冲等离子体推力器工作过程,仿真得到的出口速度、元冲量与实验值吻合较好,而放电烧蚀质量则相对误差较大;当电容容量变化时,元冲量随放电能量增大呈近似的线性增长关系,放电烧蚀质量随放电能量的增大单调增加且呈非线性关系。     

氪气工质霍尔推力器束聚焦特性研究

以研究氪气替代氙气作为霍尔推力器工质时,等离子体束发散程度大等束聚焦特性问题为目的,通过以霍尔推力器磁场参数、放电电压和阳极工质流量分别作为单一变量进行实验研究,考察其对推力器等离子体束聚焦影响情况。使用HET-P70霍尔推力器进行相关实验,通过改变磁场参数来研究磁场位形对氪气工质推力器性能的影响,最终发现合适磁场位形形成的磁聚焦状态,即实验一中的工况3,可以使羽流发散角达到11.5°,此时推力器放电电压在400V,阳极工质流量3mg/s。另外,通过实验二和实验三,考察阳极工质流量和放电电压对氪等离子体束聚焦的影响机理,发现两个放电参数的变化主要改变了中性气体主电离区位置,进而影响等离子体束聚焦状态。电离位置在设定工况下外移9%,会使得羽流发散半角增大约12°。所以,磁场位形和中性气体的电离位置是影响氪等离子体束聚焦的重要因素,在对氪气霍尔推力器进行设计优化时应予重点考虑。     

同轴型微波等离子推力器磁场效应

在2.45 GHz同轴型微波等离子体推力器中加入磁场可以提高推力器的性能。这是由于磁场的存在,在推力器启动阶段会形成电子回旋共振区;稳定工作时,等离子体获得的焦尔热比没有磁场时高,这些都增加了等离子体吸收的微波能量。以氩气为工质,对外加磁场微波等离子推力器进行了实验研究,结果表明,推力器可以达到较高的耦合效率。对等离子体羽流的诊断则表明,外加磁场提高了推力器谐振腔内工质气体的电离度。     

空间推进技术专刊——毛细管放电型脉冲等离子体推力器输出特性分析

为了研究毛细管放电型脉冲等离子体推力器输出特性,本文借助电学诊断手段展开实验研究,获得了推力器典型放电波形,系统研究了不同毛细管内径和施加电压对等离子体等效阻抗,沉积能量效率的影响规律。利用微冲量测量台架,测试了不同参数下毛细管推力器输出元冲量,并通过计算获得了推力器比冲、总体效率的变化规律。实验结果表明,当毛细管内径不断增大时,能量沉积效率不断下降,元冲量下降,比冲降低。主电容电压增大时,放电能量不断增大,能量沉积效率降低,元冲量和单次等效烧蚀质量不断增大,但推力器比冲和总体效率均先增加并趋于稳定。当毛细管腔体长度为16 mm,内径3 mm,主电容2.5 μF,充电电压为2 kV时,输出元冲量350.79±7.50 μN s,比冲531 s,总体效率可达18.3%。     

毛细管放电型脉冲等离子体推力器输出特性分析

为了研究毛细管放电型脉冲等离子体推力器输出特性,借助电学诊断手段展开实验研究,获得了推力器典型放电波形,系统研究了不同毛细管内径和施加电压对等离子体等效阻抗、沉积能量效率的影响规律。利用微冲量测量台架,测试了不同参数下毛细管推力器输出元冲量,并通过计算获得了推力器比冲、总体效率的变化规律。实验结果表明,当毛细管内径不断增大时,能量沉积效率不断下降,元冲量下降,比冲降低。主电容电压增大时,放电能量不断增大,能量沉积效率降低,元冲量和单次等效烧蚀质量不断增大,但推力器比冲和总体效率均先增加并趋于稳定。当毛细管腔体长度为16mm,内径3mm,主电容2.5μF,充电电压为2kV时,输出元冲量350.79±7.50μN?s,比冲531s,总体效率可达18.3%。     

脉冲等离子体推力器火花塞的性能实验

点火回路引燃脉冲等离子体推力器的主电容放电,是推力器的关键部分之一,其性能直接影响到推力器运行的成败。实验设计了脉冲等离子体推力器的点火电路和同轴型、钩型、平行电极型三种结构的火花塞。在此基础上,获得了三种火花塞的充电电压、放电电流及点火情况。结果显示,平行电极型的点火效果最佳。最后分析了三种火花塞的点火机理,获得了较好放电性能的火花塞结构形式,为脉冲等离子体推力器的稳定运行提供了重要的依据。     

脉冲等离子体推力器放电波形设计评估仿真研究

运用磁流体动力学的方法,对脉冲等离子体推力器推力室工作过程开展三维双温MHD数值仿真,并开展对推力室的工作机理的分析研究。通过该模型计算得到的推进剂烧蚀质量和元冲量与实验结果相符,同时针对不同初始电压、电容以及两种特征波形的情况进行评估,为推力器的放电波形设计提供指导依据。结果显示在推力器波形设计的初期,是采用电流高变化率低能量水平,还是采用电流低变化率高能量水平,需要结合实际,进行优化评估。     

发散磁场中等离子体加速和推进性能数值研究

稳态螺旋波等离子体推力器中，源室放电获得的一定能量的等离子体经过磁喷管加速产生预定的推力和比冲。为了分析在发散磁场约束下，等离子体的运动受约束磁场和内能变化的影响规律及其推进性能，引入了考虑电子和离子不同响应的二维轴对称数值模型。计算了入口中心磁感应强度[B0]为100～500G、电子温度[Te0]为3.0～10.0eV时等离子体的运动。结果表明，入口等离子体的内能增加，[B0]保持100G不变时，其最终膨胀的绝对速度增加，比冲从400s提高到约为580s；内能变化对比冲[Isp]的影响大于磁感应强度。不考虑等离子体与磁场相互作用情况下，文中计算的磁场范围可以最大限度地将内能转化为等离子体的轴向定向动能；为了提高[Isp]，应适当增加电离段等离子体获得的能量，且可以适当降低对产生约束磁场的电流线圈输入能量要求。     

Influences of characteristic parameters on starting-up process of an arcjet thruster

Arcjet thruster has been a widely used electrical propulsion technology on GEO satellites since 1993. In its long history of technical development and commercial application, lifetime verification of an arcjet thruster is always one of the most important and expensive tasks. Considering that the main life limitation of an arcjet thruster is electrode ablation and a significant share of the total ablation happens in its starting-up process, the starting-up process is studied with arc voltage signals. Through interpretation of arc voltage signals, the transfer process of the arc root on the anode surface is identified, and ΔT (the duration of the arc root transfer process) is suggested to be a characteristic parameter for fast evaluation of lifetime assessment and design optimization for an arcjet thruster. With this criterion, the influences of typical parameters on the starting-up process are established through comparison with a benchmark parameter. According to experimental results, an increase of the gas flow will obviously reduce ΔT, while a smaller swirl aperture and a longer throat channel do not have a remarkable correlation with ΔT. Moreover, with a sample of a smaller throat diameter to increase the flow velocity, a reduction of ΔT is achieved. Meanwhile, the modifications also affect the stability of arcjet thruster operation, which is also discussed.     

A brief review of alternative propellants and requirements for pulsed plasma thrusters in micropropulsion applications

Technological miniaturization has enabled the development of small satellites weighing as little as 1 kg. Unfortunately, there is still a lack of suitable efficient micropropulsion systems at these scales. The pulsed plasma thruster is a structurally simple form of electric propulsion. This simplicity also makes it ideally suited for miniaturization. Its history can be traced back to applications in satellites that are much larger than micro/nano-satellites. The vast majority of modern pulsed plasma thrusters use solid polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) as a propellant. Unfortunately, at lower discharge energy levels such as those necessitated by the power limitations of micro/nano-satellites, PTFE has a tendency to exhibit carbon deposition, which can ultimately lead to thruster failure. In this new era of small satellites, it is important to consider alternative propellants in the miniaturization of pulsed plasma thrusters. This brief review discusses the needs and limitations of small satellites and alternative propellants that may be able to meet these needs. Such propellants may be able to offer advantages such as a longer thruster lifetime, a higher specific impulse, or a higher thrust-to-power ratio. This would enable the development of different types of pulsed plasma thrusters that can be tailored towards specific mission requirements.     

MACH2 simulations of a micro laser ablation plasma thruster

In this work the detailed physical processes occurring in the high density plasma that is ejected from the solid propellant surface in a small laser ablation thruster are simulated using MACH2. Qualitative results of the laser ablation process that leads to propellant erupting from the surface and leaving behind a crater in a solid Teflon® propellant are presented. Simulations were conducted for a 0.5 μs laser pulse (FWHM) at 935 nm with laser pulse energy ranging from 20 μJ to 2 mJ. Simulation results indicate that crater diameter and depth increase with pulse energy. The impulse bit also increases with pulse energy. Specific impulse follows the opposite trend and decreases with laser pulse energy. The simulated impulse bit for a 2 mJ, 0.5 μs laser pulse over-predicts that reported in the literature for a 2 mJ, 2 ms laser ablation thruster pulse by approximately one order of magnitude and under-predicts the specific impulse by approximately one order of magnitude.     

电弧加热发动机地面试验(Ⅱ)发动机电特性分析

1引言电弧加热发动机(Arcjet)的工作是依靠电弧加热气体推进剂经喷管加速后向外喷射而产生推力,发动机的性能(比冲、推进效率、寿命等)一方面与发动机的结构有关,另一方面和电弧的发电特性及电源的工作特性有关[1,2]。只有保证电源工作的伏安特性与电弧工作的伏安特性相匹配,才     

Plasma transport simulation under different conditions and optimization analysis of dual-stage grid ion thruster

In order to study the extraction and acceleration mechanism of the dual-stage grid, a three-dimensional model based on the Particle-In-Cell/Monte Carlo Collision(PIC/MCC) method is performed. Dual-stage grid ion thruster is a new type of electrostatic ion thruster, which can break through the limitations of traditional gridded ion thrusters, and greatly improve the specific impulse. The high performance also makes the grid sensitive to operating parameters. In this paper,the influence of grid pa...     

磁场对霍尔推力器放电特性及性能参数影响的粒子模拟研究

磁场强度及位形对霍尔推力器放电过程有显著影响。根据霍尔推力器通道尺寸和等离子体放电过程建立二维物理模型,采用粒子模拟方法,研究了不同磁场强度及位形等离子体放电特性,讨论了推力、推功比及放电电流的变化规律。模拟表明:当中轴线磁场强度峰值小于200G时,磁场对电子轴向传导约束减弱;当磁场强度峰值在200G～420G时,电子温度、电离率及电子与壁面碰撞频率降低,出口处离子径向速度增大,壁面腐蚀增加;当磁场强度峰值为280G时,加速区最短,放电电流最小。不同零磁点磁场位形会改变通道电离区和加速区位置,影响推力器放电性能。     

低功率变截面通道霍尔推力器电离特性

在不改变霍尔推力器特征尺寸的条件下为了提高其低功率时的性能,采用缩小通道局部通流面积的方法,利用增加电离区原子密度来提高工质利用率。实验结果表明,该方法能有效拓展低功率放电范围,控制工质电离过程,增加工质利用率,并提高霍尔推力器在低功率下的推力、比冲和效率性能。羽流发散角优化是后续变截面研究中需要重点关注的问题。     

Diagnostic and modelling investigation on the ion acceleration and plasma throttling effects in a dual-emitter hollow cathode micro-thruster

Hollow cathode discharges are widely used as neutralizers for the electric propulsion systems and recently developed into micro-thrusters for the small satellites. In this work, a dual-emitter hollow cathode thruster is developed, which can be operated in two different modes—the neutralizer mode and the micro-thruster mode. For characterizing this kind of new device, the Langmuir probe, Faraday probe, and retarding potential analyzer are used to determine the electron temperature, electron density, ion flux, and ion energy distribution function. The operating parameters, including the thrust, and specific impulse, are also measured. A two-dimensional self-consistent extended fluid model is employed to calculate the spatial distribution of plasma parameters and the fluid field of electrons in the region around the emitters. By comparing the diagnostic and modelling results, it is found that the change in the electric field and ionization zone is the essential reason for the different performances of the device in the neutralizer and micro-thruster modes. Variation in the electric field leads to an ion acceleration effect in the micro-thruster mode; moving of the ionization zone raises the plasma pressure in the orifice region of the hollow cathode, and thus leads to enhanced plasma throttling and gas expanding effects. By analyzing the above mechanisms, the possible methods for improving this kind of hollow cathode micro-thruster are discussed.     

脉冲等离子体推力器放电室构型参数的影响分析研究

通过开展脉冲等离子体推力器（Pulsed Plasma Thruster, PPT）放电试验,结合理论计算与分析,研究了放电室构型参数对推力器性能的作用机理与影响规律。结果表明：推进剂烧蚀表面附近电极间距的增大使放电电流的峰值降低;增大电极高宽比使电感梯度提高,并使电磁冲量得到提升。考虑到放电电流集中在推进剂表面附近,电流峰值主要受到放电室上游电极间距的影响,因此,采用在放电室下游增大电极扩张角的方法使电极高宽比增大,通过这种空间上的分离,能够解决增大电流峰值与提高电感梯度之间的矛盾,实现推力器电磁冲量的综合提升。相比于常规PPT所使用的矩形推进剂构型,V形的推进剂构型可有效提升推力器的气动冲量。